
FT MEADE 
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The John J. and Hanna M. McManus 
and Morris N. and Chesley V. Young 
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PRINCIPLES OF 




PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY 

APPLIED TO 


MAN’S SOCIAL RELATIONS; 


TOGETHER WITH AN 


ANALYSIS OF THE DOMESTIC FEELINGS. 


“Be ye not unequally yoked together.” 


BY L. N. FOWLER, 

PRACTICAL PHRENOLOGIST. 


PUBLISHED BY 

L. N. & O. S. FOWLER, 135 Nassau street, New York; 
SAXTON &. PIERCE, 133 Washington street, Boston, 
3842 . 





























* 










. v . 






; , 4 " ' 


i 

. 



* 




PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY 

AS APPLIED TO 

MARRIAGE. 


Man was created with the express design of 
becoming perfectly happy, both physically and 
mentally. But in order to enjoy this boon of 
Heaven, he must understand and obey the laws 
of his being, and give to every power of his 
mind and body just that kind of exercise and 
direction which their nature requires. For it is 
an immutable principle pervading the whole 
universe, that in proportion as the natural laws 
are complied with, so will good order and hap- 
piness be secured ; and also, that we shall suf- 
fer to the full extent for any violation or in- 
fringement of these laws, even to the third and 
fourth generations. 

Man possesses a social, as well as an intel- 


6 


PHRENOLOGY 


leciual and moral nature. There are certain 
relations growing out of this part of his nature, 
which, in order to secure the greatest amount 
of happiness, it is of the highest importance for 
him to understand and obey. 

The object of this lecture is, to show that in 
proportion as we are properly united in the so- 
cial or domestic relations, being governed by 
sincere and honest motives, so shall we be bles- 
sed in those relations, and no farther. Man 
does not enjoy the full, complete and proper 
exercise of all his faculties, until he becomes a 
companion and parent. The Author of all 
things might have increased and multiplied the 
race to any extent, without the aid of human 
instrumentality, but, in the plenitude of his wis- 
dom, he saw the present to be the most perfect 
arrangement that could exist, and extended the 
same principle throughout the whole animal 
kingdom. In accordance with this design, our 
Creator furnished man with the ability and de- 
sire, accompanying the command “ to increase 
and multiply.” 

This is all that our Creator could consistently 
do in the matter, except by way of exerting a 
secondary influence through his Providence, °in * 
guiding and exciting us to obey this law of our 


AND PHYSIOLOGY. 


7 


nature. The means, then, are of Divine origin, 
and, of course, perfect; but, man becoming the 
agent, and having the entire control over these 
means, is liable to abuse or pervert them, for 
which he alone is responsible ; and the fact that 
the means which he uses proves either a curse or 
a blessing, settles the question beyond a doubt. 

Not only the happiness, but the very exist- 
ence of man depends on a union of the sexes. 
This is a law of our nature — a part of our being, 
and involves some of the most important objects 
for which we were placed in this world. The 
institution of marriage is, moreover, sanctioned 
by Heaven, and it is, therefore, right and proper 
that we should make ourselves thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the nature of this institution, as 
well as the relations growing out of it. Not 
only our own health and happiness require it, 
but the best interests of posterity imperatively 
demand it. And every lawful and proper means 
should be used to gain information on this most 
important of all subjects. 

Phrenology and physiology are the only sci- 
ences which make us acquainted with the laws of 
our organization, and afford that kind of knowl- 
edge by which we may comply with them to 
the best advantage. 


8 


PHRENOLOGY 


Physiology makes us acquainted with those 
conditions of the body upon which long life and 
health depend, as well as with what physical 
qualities our own are best adapted. 

Phrenology makes us acquainted with the 
faculties of the mind and their manifestations, 
the combinations which produce harmony be- 
tween the parties united, and the means of 
adapting the exercise of each faculty in the one 
individual to that of the other, besides informing 
us in relation to the nature and adaptation of 
those faculties which are connected with our so- 
cial and domestic relations. 



AND PHYSIOLOGY. 


9 



The domestic feelings and propensities are 
located in that portion of the head which is oc- 
cupied by the lower and posterior convolutions 
of the brain — mostly covered by the occipital 
bone. Their influence upon character is greater 
than any other given number of faculties, and 
they occupy a larger portion of the brain. And 
these faculties, properly or improperly directed, 


io 


PHRENOLOGY 


have more to do with the happiness or misery 
of mankind than any other class ; hence the im- 
portance of securing their proper influence and 
direction. They being very strong and active, 
are extremely liable to be perverted, particularly 
by young persons, in whom they are excitable, 
and who have had but little experience in the 
world. The most effectual way to direct these 
feelings in the proper channel, and prevent their 
becoming perverted, is to secure the equal exer- 
cise of the moral and intellectual faculties, al- 
lowing the social feelings to be freely exercised 
in virtuous society, innocent amusements, and 
reading suitable books — thus creating a balance 
of power in favor of intelligence, morality and 
virtue. 

The first faculty called into exercise in the 
social group, is AM ATI VEN ESS, situated in 
the cerebellum, giving width between and be- 
hind the ears. ( bee cuts.) 

The profile of the female represents large Am- 
ativeness to advantage — the width and promi- 
nence of the neck behind the ear, together with 
very strong Firmness, elevation of head from the 
ear upwards. This cut was taken from a draw- 
ing of a female seventeen years of age while she 
was confined in Auburn jail for loose, licentious 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


11 


conduct; and the author was informed by the 
jailor that he never had a person under his care 
so unyielding and devoid of shame and modesty, 
as the woman which this cut represents. The 
faculties of Amativeness and Firmness were per- 
verted, while the moral and intellectual had a 
limited influence. 

The drawing of the scull is made from that 
of a female who had Amativeness developed in 
a very excessive degree, and in whom it became 
perverted. 



Very large Amativeness. 

Its function and manifestation is adapted to 
and in harmony with the condition of man and 


12 


PHRENOLOGY 


animals, as agents of reproduction. It gives us 
all those feelings and impulses which we expe- 
rience between the sexes, as such. “ It exerts 
a quiet, but effectual influence in the general in- 
tercourse between the sexes, giving rise in each 
to a sort of kindly interest in all that concerns 
the other. It softens all the proud, irascible and 
antisocial principles of our nature, in every thing 
which regards that sex which is the object of it ; 
and it increases the activity and force of all the 
kindly and benevolent affections. This explains 
many facts which appear in the mutual regards 
of the sexes towards each other. Men are, gen- 
erally speaking, more generous and kind, more 
benevolent and charitable, toward women, than 
they are to men, or than women are to one an- 
other.” The characters of both sexes are im- 
proved by the society of the other, by way of 
making man modest, polite and refined, and 
woman more energetic, ambitious and talented. 
In healthy and well-formed persons, the larger 
the organ, the more desirable is the company of 
the other sex. It is much influenced by the 
imagination in increasing the charms and per- 
sonal attractions where there are but few, thus 
giving false impressions of each other, and di- 
recting the intellect into a wrong channel. 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


13 



But if the organ is small, the person is less sus- 
ceptible to emotions of love ; is cold-hearted and 
distant — disposed to avoid the company of the 
opposite sex, and manifests a want of refine- 
ment, tenderness, warmth and delicacy of feel- 
ing, which should exist between the sexes. The 
affections of such a person may be characterized 
by purity of feeling and platonic attachment, 
rather than by those impassioned emotions which 
spring from large Amativeness. 

This faculty is very much affected by the 


14 


PHRENOLOGY 


temperament, and under peculiar circumstances 
may be so much excited as, for the time being, 
to appear large, when it is in fact only moderate. 

This faculty should be equal in its influences 
between the parties united, in order to secure 
the greatest amount of happiness in domestic 
life, and the harmonious exercise of all the other 
faculties — for a majority of the difficulties which 
occur between man and wife arise from the ir- 
regular and unequal influences of this faculty. 

When the function of this faculty is perverted, 
it leads to looseness, licentiousness, vulgarity, 
low life and profligacy. Hence, we see individ- 
uals of high standing and rank in society, and 
distinguished for intellectual and sometimes for 
moral greatness, become very degraded in the 
eyes of the virtuous, when guided by the per- 
verted influences of this faculty. The whole 
history of man, in sacred and profane history, 
and in all gradations of society, bears strong and 
degrading marks of its perversion ; and in no 
possible way does human nature appear so low 
and disgusting, so brutal and devoid of reason, 
as when this faculty has the controlling influ- 
ence— a faculty which, guided by reason and 
modified by the moral sentiments, is calculated 
to secure the highest degree of domestic enjoy- 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


15 


merit, and make social life most pleasant and 
desirable. But, strange as it may appear, hu- 
man nature has become so depraved, the in- 
tellect and ambition of many influential men are 
so misdirected that they consider their greatness 
and popularity to increase in proportion to the 
perversion of this faculty, thus leading thousands 
astray. It is the part and natural influence of 
Phrenology, to exert a great influence in cor- 
recting these false impressions, and bringing 
about a very important reform in this matter. 

This faculty is stronger in the male than in 
the female, and in them more often perverted. 
The more common ways which lead to the ex- 
citement and perversion of this faculty are : 

First. The indulgence of the appetite in the 
too free use of stimulating food and drink in con- 
nection with the exercise of the social feelings — 

n ‘ 

such as parties of pleasure, clubs, carouses, balls, 
&c. The fashion of honoring men and meas- 
ures, of celebrating party triumphs or birthdays 
by superb dinners and late suppers of the most 
rich food, of passing around the glass so freely 
and allowing the merits of the cause which they 
honor to be a sufficient excuse for becoming in- 
toxicated, is decidedly bad, or has an immoral 
tendency. For a proof of this, we have only to 


16 


PHRENOLOGY 


notice the persons who encourage them, and see 
the consequences of such a course of education. 
The evil is twofold : one is, that it makes drunk- 
ards ; the other is, it encourages licentiousness. 

Secondly . Encouraging certain modes of 
dress calculated expressly to attract the atten- 
tion of the opposite sex, and exciting the curi- 
osity by the peculiar manner in which dress en- 
velops the female form — arousing the passion in 
those who have it strong, and the disgust of 
those more elevated in feeling. All may be 
considered as the legitimate effects of many of 
the now existing fashions. 

Thirdly. Reading works of romance written 
by persons of morbid feelings, sickly sentiments 
and extravagant hopes — all containing highly 
wrought scenes of amatory happiness and earthly 
felicity — thus exciting the feelings and weaken- 
ing the judgment, creating a distaste for com- 
monplace transactions, and giving false and im- 
perfect ideas of human nature. 

Fourthly. Attending theatres and other simi- 
lar places of amusement, whose principal attrac- 
tions now are, unnatural and far-fetched repre- 
sentations of scenes overloaded with “ love,” in 
sentiment and in action, the most absurd, be- 
cause unreal. In truth, it may well be called 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


17 


acting. Besides, at these places there are resorts 
where licentiousness stalks openly and defyingly, 
where the most abandoned congregate, a moral 
Upas tree, which disseminates all impurity and 
blights with deadly and destructive effect the 
moral feelings. 

And again, there are many other more private 
ways of its perversion which different individuals 
resort to under various circumstances. Its per- 
verted influences are very contagious and easily 

felt, as most persons in society are aware. 

The young especially, cannot be too particular 
as to the character of their companions, or of 
the habits they encourage, for the effects of early 
impressions and associations are never lost sMit 
of, and tend to bias the mind, direct the thoughts 
and mould the character for life. An individual 
in whom this faculty is perverted, is constantly 
exerting a contaminating influence over all his 
associates, and he is successful in leading others 
astray, in proportion as he can control their 
minds. Most of the chit-chat talk of young la- 
dies and gentlemen, when they are striving to 
entertain each other most successfully, has a de- 
moralizing influence, and should be discoun- 
tenanced. 

Much exertion is made at the present day, to 
2 


18 


PHRENOLOGY 


reform mankind in regard to this faculty, but a 
complete and radical reformation cannot take 
place until we understand thoroughly the design, 
function and adaptation of this faculty; and the 
causes of its perversion being known are guarded 
against until this faculty of the mind receives its 
proper attention as well as the moral and intel- 
lectual faculties. Parents and teachers must lay 
aside their false delicacy, and teach their children 
in relation to the full and important bearings of 
the seventh commandment, how to obey it, thus 
cultivating this as well as the other faculties of 
the mind, and discountenancing its too early and 
improper manifestations, taking particular care 
to fill their minds with useful and virtuous 
thoughts. This faculty becomes wrongly di- 
rected in children much earlier than many are 
aware. Many facts have come under my ob- 
servation of its perverted influences, in children 
from four years old and upwards. More atten- 
tion should be paid to the early manifestations 
of this faculty, in order to secure its proper di- 
rection, for it is one of the strongest feelings of 
our nature, and when once perverted or im- 
properly biassed, the morals of such an individ- 
ual are on a sandy foundation, and receive a 
fundamental and permanent injury. 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


19 


PHILOPROGENITIVENESS; ITS LO- 
CATION AND ANALYSIS. 



Philoprogenitiveness is the next faculty ex* 
ercised in the social relations. It is located im- 
mediately above the middle of the cerebellum, 
from which it is separated by a small membrane, 
called the tentorium , directly under the centre 
of the occipital bone. In mankind, the posterior 
lobes of both hemispheres are extended beyond 
the cerebellum , which is universally compressed 
and developed directly underneath the faculty 
of Philoprogenitiveness. It will give a round- 
ness and prominence to the back portion of the 
head, in the region of this organ in all those 
heads wherein it is fully developed. Thus, in 


20 


PHRENOLOGY 


the cuts, the first one represents a head in which 
the organ is relatively deficient, and the curve 
in the occiput appears to be quite slight. The 
second, by way of contrast, has the organ in a 
fair degree ; and it will be seen that the head is 
much more round, and particularly prominent in 
the region of this faculty. 

Having explained its location in such a man- 
ner that all can decide upon it for themselves, in 
a general manner, we enter next upon a descrip- 
tion of its function. The precise meaning of the 
term Philoprogenitiveness is, the love of off- 
spring. It is the true and the only source of 
parental love; consequently this faculty or its 
influence is extremely necessary to the perfec- 
tion of our social state, and the proper preser- 
vation of our children . It gives instinctive love 
for a weak and helpless offspring, and is ex- 
pressly adapted to the perfectly dependent con- 
dition of the infant and child. 

One fact, which shows that this faculty is en- 
tirely distinct from any other mental emotion, 
and is wholly spontaneous in its action, is, that 
this feeling is almost invariably increased in pro- 
portion as the object is weak and destitute, re- 
quiring the more care and solicitude. 

Is not the mother’s heart more closely bound 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


21 


around, and her affections more strongly centred 
in, that child towards whom Nature has been 
most niggardly ? How much must we admire 
this peculiar characteristic of excitability, when 
we examine the pure field for the exercise of 
this organ. Of how much necessity and real 
utility is it in prompting the performance of those 
thousand little trifles, and often annoying ser- 
vices, demanded by regard, not only for the 
comfort, but very life of the new-born infant ; 
and not done coldly, as a matter of mere duty, 
but with gentleness and pleasure caused by fond 
maternal love. 

And it is a positive fact, that we find this 
faculty more active and excitable in mothers du- 
ring the first months after delivery, when the 
situation of the infant is so completely dependent, 
demanding, in fact, unremitting attention, and at 
a time when its appearance, so far from inviting 
caresses or affection, (aside from the influence 
of Philoprogenitiveness) prompts to the feelings 
of disgust and dislike. This organ, we say, is 
a separate faculty of the mind, which is expres- 
sed by the social feelings. No one can, with 
justice, pronounce its effects to be the result of 
reason, for we find it in some mothers so power- 
ful, so controlling in its actions, as to cause tne 


22 


PHRENOLOGY 


utter ruin of their loved ones, from indulo-mo* 
them in their wishes and doing that which will 
only confer a momentary gratification, notwith- 
standing judgment and intellect alike forbid such 
treatment as pernicious and imprudent. 

Neither can it be produced from any combi- 
nation of the known faculties, or from any one 
of them, for we see maternal fondness displayed 
in its strongest and most decisive bearings by 
those who act as though it were a virtue to vio- 
late, not only the ordinances of God, but the 
regulations of men. We often find, as about 
the only redeeming trait of character, in some 
of the lowest and most abandoned females, whose 
actions and lives display a most horrid want of 
moral sense, a devoted love of offspring that no 
suffering can daunt — no privation destroy. — - 
They, though dead to all shame and disgrace, 
and guilty of many crimes, have exhibited a de- 
votion and lack of selfishness, in oftentimes sac- 
rificing themselves in order to screen their off- 
spring, that cannot fail to command our respect. 
The inference is clear, that, as it cannot proceed 
from intellect, as it cannot arise from the moral 
sentiments, it must necessarily originate in a dis- 
tinct faculty. 

It is larger in females than in males, and their 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE, 


23 


duties, together with their physical condition, 
call more largely for its exercise. All and every 
one admit this principle when considered prac- 
tically, for no one thinks of hiring male servants 
to take charge of young children. Females are 
always selected. It is seen of how much con- 
sequence this feeling must be in order to perfect 
the social arrangement, and thus add to the en- 
joyment of domestic life. This faculty should 
by all means be educated so as to harmonize 
with all the other mental faculties, for when pre- 
dominantly large and active, without proper re- 
striction its natural tendency would be to spoiling 
children from excess of kindness : they are not 
properly corrected and admonished , but their 
conduct approved (by silence at least) even 
though guilty of actions decidedly rash, if not 
morally wrong. In families where the father 
has strong Conscience, Firmness, Self-esteem 
and full Destructiveness, his motto will be, 
“ Spare the rod and spoil the child,” and punish- 
ment will be enforced for the violation of duty 
or command ; but let the mother be governed 
by an undue predominance of Benevolence and 
Philoprogenitiveness with deficient Firmness, 
while one chastises for transgressions, the other 
pays a premium upon them by the presentation 


24 


PHRENOLOGY 


of candy or some other acceptable gift— a sort 
of soothing ointment, that effectually cures all 
the benefits that would have resulted from the 
necessary discipline. What must this effect? 
When very weak, it leads to equally disastrous 
results, as children are then considered a curse 
and a plague — sometimes shamefully treated and 
infanticide committed. It is large in the heads 
of those males who are much interested in aught 
that has for its aim the welfare and improvement 
of children, and who take peculiar interest in 
their education. It is large in the head of Hon. 
Henry Clay, he. When it is weak in wo- 
man, she lacks almost the peculiarities of the 
sex — at least, one of the most important ones 

and in consequence would be hardly fitted to 
discharge the duties of married life, and entirely 
unfitted for those of a parent. 

We will now mention a few anecdotes, which 
will set ve to exemplify some of its functions 
and their necessity as has been described. Mr. 
L. N. Fowler, while on a tour through the State 
of New York, became acquainted with a female 
who boarded in the same hotel with him, and 
was the mother of two children. He found her 
almost destitute of the organ of Philoprogeni- 
tiveness. Now mark the result: The older 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


25 


child was of sufficient age to be sent away and 
taken charge of by others, so as to give but little 
trouble to the mother, being about six years of 
age. The other was an infant, and in fact was 
MURDERED by its own mother — not by 
violence , but by just as effectual negligence. 
She would go out visiting; lock the child up so 
that others could not minister to its wants ; 
would not take the pains requisite to ensure 
cleanliness, and the child became ill. She would 
tie it into the cradle ; would not allow of a phys- 
ician^ attendance, and in many ways subjected 
it to brutal treatment, finally causing its death. 
It was buried in the garden, and the mother actu- 
ally manifested joy at being rid of the “ plague.” 

He examined the head of a gentleman at Os- 
wego, N. Y., in whom this faculty was small, 
and described him as being wholly indifferent to 
children, forming a marked defect in character, 
and concluded by expressing a hope that he was 
not a father, for he would be unable to sympa- 
thize with a family. Well,” said he, “ I wish 
I was not also, for, to tell the truth about it, 1 
hate the little brats ; and were it not for their 
mother, they would be shamefully neglected, for 
I cannot and will not be pestered with them.” 

Another case. Examining the head of a fe- 


26 


PHRENOLOGY 


male, in whom Philoprogenitiveness was but 
moderate, it was remarked, she cared not at all 
for children or pets, could not win their confi- 
dence, and would not be disposed to exert her- 
self to do so — indeed, it was questioned whether 
she ever had taken charge of a child even for a 
moment. Said she, “ You are mistaken — I did 
take charge of an infant once. Upon this occa- 
sion, I was visiting a friend, who wished very 
much to attend service, (being Sunday) but 
could not upon account of her child ; I volun- 
teered to attend to it, and it was left with me ; 
but no sooner had they left the house, than I 
gave it laudanum and put it to sleep, and in that 
state it remained until their return home. How 
many mothers and how many servants give chil- 
dren laudanum to quiet them, stop them from 
crying, &c., thus seriously injuring their nervous 
systems, and oftentimes causing them to fill a 
premature grave. 

The annexed cut is from the scull of a wo- 
man, which is now in the cabinet of Mr. L. N. 
Fowler. It exhibits an enormous organ of Phi- 
loprogenitiveness, and in the present instance 
was an injury from excess. The following is 
her history : She resided in Hanover, N. H. ; 
for a time was quite pious — a member of the 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


27 


church ; became a mother while in her “ teens 
she became abandoned — would not trust her 
child, however, to the hands of any second per- 
son ; she travelled the country, gaining a liveli- 
hood in a variety of ways — by begging, stealing, 
prostitution — carrying her child always with her. 
Numerous offers were made her by the charita- 
ble, to educate and provide for her child ; but 
720 , she could not live deprived of her offspring, 
and so the child grew up perfectly ignorant. 
Owing to exposures and privations, the child 
sickened and died. The mother immediately 
became insane, and finally ended her days in an 
insane asylum. 



The great need of attention being paid to the 
education and training of this organ must be at 
once admitted, and that it is incumbent upon us 
to provide for the excess or deficiencies of this 
faculty in selecting our “ companions for life.” 


28 


PHRENOLOGY 


ADHESIVENESS: ANALYSIS AND 
LOCATION. 



Another faculty in this group, and one highly 
important in its uses — which exerts an influence 
of the most extensive and necessary kind, in 
softening, ameliorating and uniting character, 
smoothing all asperities, is Adhesiveness. 

It is located upon both sides of Philoprogeni- 
tiveness, outward and above. (See bust or 
cut — the organ marked No. 3.) It is oppo- 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


29 


site the organ of Inhabitiveness, lower than 
that of Concentrativeness and immediately 
above the lambdoidal suture. 

Its function is not confined, as some have 
supposed, to mere friendship, but extends to 
sympathy, sociability, attachments not founded 
upon the generative instinct, and the disposition 
of adhering to, remaining with and embracing 
the object of affection without regard to sex, an- 
imate or inanimate, human or mere brute. Ad- 
hesiveness in its pure state, unadulterated by the 
influence of any other faculty, is now alluded to. 
The special function of this organ it is difficult 
to express. Its application and influence is 
wide and extensive ; and it is only by studying 
this, that we can impress upon our consciousness 
the idea of its real, legitimate signification. It 
constitutes man a gregarious animal, is the bond 
of society, the mental chain which is infinitely 
more efficacious in uniting families and nations 
than the naked law or force of interest. Society 
is not founded upon the mere wants of its mem- 
bers, nor upon the narrow calculations of sel- 
fishness ; neither upon sympathy arising from 
similar habits of thinking or local prejudices. 

Inductions from facts , and the result of re- 
flection, show very clearly that it arises from a 


30 


PHReNOLOGV 


distinct fundamental faculty. Phrenology not 
only recognizes the existence of the primary 
faculty adapted to this necessity, but demon- 
strates its validity and the justice of the title ? 
Adhesiveness. When large, it disposes one to 
cling around and repose perfect confidence in 
the object upon whom it is exercised, giving ar- 
dor to the disposition, making many friends, and 
often leading to the waste of time from too great 
ability to enjoy friendly intercourse and social 
amusements. 

The continuation of marriage results entirely 
from Adhesiveness. Amativeness may and does 
cause desire to arise, but that desire gratified, 
the connecting link is broken. Adhesiveness 
prompts to attachment, causing man to remain 
united after the season of his love is passed ; and 
is wholly distinct from the action of Amative- 
ness, although often confounded with it. This 
is exemplified in the case of animals, and occa- 
sionally by man : the instinct of propagation 
being manifested by some animals, and gratified 
in promiscuous intercourse, while others unite 
singly, and so strong oftentimes does their indi- 
vidual attachment become, that they have been 
known to sacrifice themselves upon the loss of 
their companion, or refusing to be comforted, 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


31 


pine away through sheer grief — the latter ex- 
hibiting beautifully the influence of this faculty, 
and the former its great deficiency. So with 
man divested of the organ of Adhesiveness : his 
desires are animal ; his love sensual — when grat- 
ified, he is satisfied ; but endowed with this 
faculty, we see the couple continuing together in 
the most affectionate union, the heart of one uni- 
ting in that of the other. It is the principle of 
all association not founded upon selfish motives . 

This organ, as well as Philoprogenitiveness, 
is much stronger in the female than in the male. 
The friendship and attachment of a female has 
become proverbial, as that it has been well re- 
marked, that whoever has the friendship of a 
female, is sure of the success of an affair in which 
she serves him. Upon this account the career 
of woman has been called the history of the af- 
fections ; and it was simply the predominance 
of this mental emotion over the animal passion 
in females, that caused Byron to sing, 

“ No friend like to a woman earth discovers, 

So that you have not been, nor will be lovers.” 

Every one must have wondered at and admired 
the devotedness, heroism and strength of char- 
acter exhibited by gentle woman when governed 
by outraged affection. All must acknowledge 


32 


PHRENOLOGY 


a difference existing in the social feelings of man 
as distinguished from those of woman. The 
cause of this difference is written in their cere- 
bral organization — the one originating in Ama- 
tiveness , the other in Adhesiveness. Herein is 
the secret, and so far do they differ as these 
faculties are distinct in their principles. It is 
the open exercise of this organ which gives to 
our social relations new life and a rich coloring, 
refinement, courtesy, gallantry and all which 
sheds lustre upon human nature in a state of 
companionship; and it is the acknowledged pre- 
dominance of this feeling that gives to female so- 
ciety its elevating and ennobling characteristics. 

The clans of Scotland exhibit the strength of 
this faculty, joined with Combativeness. 

“ Stranger, this Roderic Dhu, 

Is to me a kinsman dear, a clansman true, 

And every word against his honor spoke, 

Demands from me avenging stroke.” 

As a nation, the Irish manifest it. The Hin- 
doos show r a deficiency. Individuals in whom 
it is small, do not mingle in general society or 

care much for particular friends and relations 

prefer solitude, and are unsocial. The continued 
happiness of married persons, of their families, 
and of members of society generally as social 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


33 


beings, depends much, if not altogether, upon 
the proper and legitimate exercise of these fac- 
ulties. 


UNION FOR LIFE. 


It is supposed by some phrenologists, that 
there is an organ located between Philoprogeni- 
tiveness, Adhesiveness, Combativeness and Am- 
ativeness, which creates a desire between the 
sexes of a union for life. It was first discovered 
by Dr. Vimont, a distinguished French physi- 
ologist, while he was making observations on 
comparative phrenology. He found this portion 
of the brain large in all animals disposed to pair, 
but deficient in those of an opposite character. 


3 



34 


PHRENOLOGY 


1NHAB1TIVENESS. 


The last faculty to be analyzed, and one very 
essential to the completeness of the social sys- 
tem, has been admitted by phrenologists under 
the name of Inhabitiveness. 

It is located directly over Philoprogenitive- 
ness, being supported upon both sides by Ad- 
hesiveness. There will oftentimes be found a 
bony excrescence arising from the closing and 
general roughness of the sutures. Occasionally, 
it is situated underneath this unevenness. Ow- 
ing to this difficulty, it is more uncertain to de- 
cide upon this trait of character than upon many 



APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


35 


others. A very simple guide to ascertain its 
position correctly, is to trace out the occipital 
and parietal sutures, at whose terminus it will be 
found. The establishment of this faculty and 
the understanding of its function has been at- 
tended with difficulty, and at the present time 
is not generally received by the phrenological 
world. Gall was disposed to ascribe its influ- 
ences to Self-esteem, and states that in the ex- 
amination of the brains of animals, he uniformly 
found that those classes wdio voluntarily soared 
aloft — eagles, falcons, &zc., and such as are ac- 
customed to be found upon the higher peaks of 
the mountains, far above the region where they 
are accustomed to live, such as the chamois — 
had the organ (Self-esteem) largely developed. 
In short, that the feeling in man which prompts 
to moral height, the elevation of authority &c., 
is but a higher gradation of the instinct of ani- 
mals, “giving a predilection for physical heights 
and altitudes. ,> Spurzheim went farther than 
this, and recognized a distinct faculty under this 
name ; but in so doing he clashes with the opin- 
ion and observations of Combe, who describes 
the same faculty as being but an adjunct of an- 
other under some modifications, called Concen- 
trativeness, or a “ tendency to concentrate the 


36 


PHRENOLOGY 


mind within itself, and to direct its powers in a 
combined effort to one object.” 

This caused a difference of opinion between 
these great phrenologists, which not leading to 
a satisfactory result, was suspended by Combe 
remarking, “ I am convinced that he [Dr. Spurz- 
heim] has not correctly apprehended the quality 
of mind which I designate as Concentrativeness. 
1 his must no doubt be my fault ; but it affords 
good reason for not prolonging the controversy. 
It has been long seated in the author’s mind, 
and constant observation is demonstrating more 
forcibly every day, the correctness of the posi- 
tion, that we are endowed with two distinct fac- 
ulties of the mind Inhabitiveness and likewise 
Concentrativeness: the one giving attachment 
to place, love of country, & c . ; the other, con- 
tinuity of mind and connectedness of purpose. 
There is much analogy between the relative 
position one to the other of Concentrativeness 
and Inhabitiveness at the present time, and that 
of upper and lower Individuality formerly, i n 
both, so far as regards organic position, difficulty 
of settling definitely the operations of each, and 
the original blending into one of what in reality 
constituted two separate and independent facul- 
ties. Spurzheim and Combe are both correct 


applied to marriage. 


37 


Qnd incoirect : Combe being incorrect in deny- 
ing the existence of the one established by 
Spnrzheim, and Spurzheim erring in repudiating 
the faculty maintained by Combe— -the shield 
being composed of both gold and silver, the very 
truth of their individual opinions causing them 
to be slightly prejudiced. Concentrativeness 
acts independently of the feelings, partaking of 
the character of a governing organ, whilst In- 
habitiveness is intimately connected with the 
domestic propensities and its influences recog- 
nized only in that particular sphere. Their 
relative position in the brain is found to corres- 
pond admirably with this peculiarity of action. 
The one we are describing (see position upon 
the bust) being surrounded entirely by the social 
family, the other being brought in close contact 
with Self-esteem, forms part of the directing 
group situated in the crown of the head. 

The necessity for a primitive faculty, from 
which must result attachment to country, home 
and residence, will be at once admitted when 
reference is had to the great variety of clime, of 
soil, and of institutions of which the earth is 
composed and filled. Every zone being in- 
tended for the habitation of man and animals, a 
propensity producing local love would be re- 


33 


PHRENOLOGY 


quired in order to give contentment, also to bind 
small numbers of human beings more strongly 
together. The utility of this organ will be more 
strongly shown by the following fact, than by 
many tedious descriptions : A fixedness of habi- 
tation is absolutely demanded for all improve- 
ments in the arts and sciences, in social and po- 
litical institutions. If this should be admitted, 
as upon reflection it must, how applicable would 
be the quaint old proverb, now used in reference 
to restless, wandering, changing individuals, 
when applied to nations, that “ A rolling stone 
gathers no moss,” Compare the Bedouin of 
the desert with the Anglo-Saxon — the wander- 
ing and predatory habits of the one with the 
desire to be settled, the love of country, of the 
old homestead, so conspicuous in the other. 
The Arab race were originally far more enlight- 
ened than the natives of Britain. At one time, 
they were the intellectual teachers of the whole 
world. Their not retaining that position cannot 
be ascribed to lack of intellect — that they pos- 
sess now — but must be admitted to have been 
caused in the abstract from the deficiency of In- 
habit} veness. This may appear highly radical, , 
but it is no less true. For more proof of its be- 
in© so, witness the rapid advance in civilization 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


39 


made by the barbarous hordes of the Scythians, 
Goths, Visigoths and Huns immediately after 
their settling in the South of Europe, and conse- 
quent change of habits and of thought and living. 
What can stimulate to exertion more than the 
knowledge that our achievements will be of ser- 
vice to those we love in the family and their 
descendants, and will not be confined simply to 
one’s self? What can be more important to do- 
mestic life than the love of home ? And in the 
formation of those ties which must eventually 
lead to a settled residence, particular regard 
should he paid to the faculty which produces 
pleasure in such settlement, and whose absence 
the reverse state of feeling. 

The cut accompanying this is a correct draw- 
ing from the cast of the head of Osceola, the 
celebrated Seminole chief, who died at Sullivan’s 
island, harbor of Charleston, S. G., several years 
ago — his disease, a broken heart, caused by an 
over action of the domestic attachments. The 
organs of Philoprogenitiveness and Inhabitive- 
ness are VERY LARGE in his head. He 
was never known to laugh after being deprived 
of his children. To Inhabitiveness can be 
ascribed the whole and only cause of the Florida 
war ; and its being particularly prominent in the 


40 


PHRENOLOGY 


head of Osceola, when coupled with his known 
influence in his nation, shows that the strength 
of this faculty in one man has cost the United 
States more treasure than the entire territory is 
worth. 

The following cut represents the organ small, 
there being a depression precisely where in Os- 
ceola you notice a prominence. This drawing 
is from the scull of au individual who had trav- 
elled through Europe and America very exten- 
sively — a complete wanderer. 



applied to marriage. 


41 


SOCIAL FACULTIES AND THEIR 
COMBINATIONS. 

The foregoing are the qualities of mind exer- 
cised in our social and domestic relations. They 
dispose us to unite in marriage, and rear up fam- 
ilies. T hey lay the foundation of society and 
lead to the formation and union of families, 
neighborhoods, cities and more extensive associ- 
ations, and unite mankind in those bonds of af- 
fection which are more dear to them than life 
itself. 

In domestic life they should have a leading 
influence, yet in harmony with all the other 
faculties of the mind. This harmonious exercise 
of the different faculties is the true source of 
domestic enjoyment. When they all act in 
concert, happiness is the necessary result ; and 
the more faculties we bring into this union, the 
greater will be the amount of pleasure received ; 
but if one faculty is gratified at the expense of 
another, we secure to ourselves both pleasure 
and pain in the same act. Association is the 
bond of union everywhere, and more particularly 
so when applied to different faculties of the mind. 
Let Alimentiveness be gratified in harmony with 


42 


PHRENOLOGY 


the social feelings by all the family coming to 
the table together and assisting each other, thus 
creating general sympathy and gratitude, and 
the result is much more favorable than as if each 
one helped himself to the best advantage without 
reference to each other’s rights and wants. Let 
Combativeness and Destructiveness be exercised 
in defending family and friends, instead of be- 
coming angry at each other, finding fault and 
presenting obstacles to hinder others while we 
advance. So let Approbativeness and Self- 
esteem be exercised to save and raise the honor 
and dignity of each individual member of the 
family, rather than to become jealous of the ad- 
vancement of each other, and strive to rule and 
act the part of dictator and leader. In the same 
way the intellectual faculties can be developed 
in harmony with the social feelings, by those 
who are the best informed imparting their knowl- 
edge to the whole family, while they are all 
enjoying the heat from the same fire and guided 
by the same light ; thus knowledge will become 
more equally diffused, and a far greater amount 
of happiness will be secured both by imparting 
and receiving instruction. In like manner the 
moral and social faculties can act in unison, by 
all coming around the family altar together and 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


43 


reading a portion of the Word of God, in receiv- 
ing instruction from the same source, all suppli- 
cating the Throne of Grace for common as well 
as individual wants, by all uniting in the song 
of praise, and going to church together as a 
family, and gently checking each other for any 
imperfections or misdemeanors, thus creating a 
general impression that the happiness and suc- 
cess of one is connected with that of the whole 
family, and that if one is disgraced, all are. 
And upon the same principle, all the faculties 
may be gratified in harmony with self-control 
and self-denial on the part of one individual, and 
a forgiving disposition on the part of another. 


CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE. 

We shall now proceed to notice — 

First . Some of the improper means and mo- 
tives made use of in selecting companions for life. 

Secondly . The means we should use, and 
the motives that ought to guide us, in accom- 
plishing this most important of all objects. 

Thirdly. To dwell upon some of the evils 


44 


phrenology 


arising from the violation of the laws of our 
nature. 

Marriage is too often made a matter of feel- 
ing, and not enough of judgment and reflection . 
Many are influenced by no other motive when 
marrying, than the fact that they are in love — 
thus led on by the blind impulses "of their nature 
to form a union for life without any regard for 
consequences. It being the duty of every well 
formed and organized person to form these mat- 
rimonial relations in order to secure the greatest 
amount of happiness, it is equally our duty to 
understand the means to be used so as to secure 
this happiness, not only to ourselves, but to our 
posterity. To the want of this knowledge, in 
connexion with disobedience of the laws of our 
nature, can be ascribed most of our domestic 
difficulties — such as divorces, quarrelling, fault- 
finding, jealousies and murders, besides a long 
list of diseases which parents transmit to their 
children— thus multiplying sorrow, suffering and 
premature death. 

Happiness in domestic life can be made a 
matter of certainty instead of accident, if we 
would but obey the laws of our nature. 

The old maxim that “ Love is blind,” is too 
true : it certainly, therefore, needs a guide, which 


applied to MARRIAGE. 


45 


we have in the intellect, situated in the forehead, 
for tile express purpose of taking the lead. This 
should have a prior influence in all the affairs of 
life and the more important the transaction, 
the greater the need of its influence— and in no 
place is it more necessary, than in forming our 
domestic relations, enabling us to understand the 
principles which are necessary to be taken into 
account in order to secure that happiness which 
man is capable of enjoying; but, instead of be- 
ing guided by our judgment, and allowing our 
foreheads to take the lead, we have reversed the 
order of nature, and turn around and go back- 
wards into married life, allowing our feelings to 
take the lead until the time has passed when 
reason would be of any avail. 

Some are governed by beauty alone in their 
choice, but frequently find to their constant an- 
noyance, that their darling beauty is covered 
with a mantle of vanity, jealousy, ill-nature, or 
that the unsparing hand of disease may soon de- 
stroy that charm, leaving nothing to be admired. 

The desire of wealth joined with indolence 
often points to a fortune , instead of a compan- 
ion — thus showing that they had rather gratify 
one of the lowest and most selfish feelings of 
their nature at the expense of all other consid- 
erations. 


46 


PHRENOLOGY 


If happiness is really the object of individuals 
governed by motives of this nature, then do they 
lay themselves open to sad and grievous disap- 
pointments — for it being known that this is a 
consideration which leads many to marry, some 
who have poverty written upon their personal 
attractions will pretend, to be rich, and display 
the appearances of wealth until the object is ob- 
tained, and the union consummated, which of 
course puts a finish to further deception. The 
reality being known, must produce very un- 
pleasant feelings. 

When both parties, acting upon this principle, 
are mutually deceived, their disappointment is 
equal, and its consequences just. The follow- 
ing fact will illustrate this point, and exhibit 
clearly the folly of similar conduct. 

A distinguished young man from the South, 
making great pretensions to rank and wealth at 
home, paid attentions to a young lady residing 
near Fort Hamilton, New York Bay, whose fa- 
ther had been very wealthy, but owing to re- 
verses had become quite reduced in circum- 
stances ; still the family maintained their style, 
and the display of affluence equalled fully what 
it had been in their palmier days, and by so do- 
ing sustained their reputation in society, in order 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


47 


to allow the young ladies the better chance of 
making their “ market.” 

The new comer, prompted by the desire of 
securing the prize, and thinking she possessed 
sufficient of the needful to pay all expenses, 
dashed out in fine style, run into every extrava- 
gance, displayed the fastest and most beautiful 
horses, he. Finding debts accumulating and 
becoming pressing, he hurried on the wedding 
day. as being the only prospect for their dis- 
charge. Meanwhile, she, not suspecting that 
he had falsely represented his situation, and de- 
lighted at the idea of obtaining so liberal and 
generous a husband, encouraged his expenses, 
and was profuse herself, thinking he had the 
means to settle the bills. They were married — 
when to their astonishment and shame, they 
found themselves not only destitute of the means 
to discharge their liabilities, but unable to buy 
the necessary furniture for housekeeping. 

In cases where no deception is used, but a 
fortune obtained, it is generally a source of con- 
stant bickering and observation upon one side, v 
and of mortification upon the other, unless he or 
she possesses the cool philosophy of the man 
who, in reply to the observation of his lady, that 
her money bought the horse upon whose virtues 


48 


PHRENOLOGY 


he was expatiating to a number of his friends, 
said, “Yes, and your money bought me too.” 

It cannot be too strongly borne in mind, that 
happiness in domestic life is the result of the 
gratification of a majority of the faculties, and 
can never be derived from a single one of them. 

Some have the motive of conquest alone in 

view — a motive which ought never to exist 

while others are actuated by ambition , esteeming 
rank and honors as the greatest prize — a most 
unpleasant situation, unless a fortune accompa- 
nies the union — while others are influenced not 
so much by pure, strong and proper attachments 
and the desire of a permanent settlement and 
homestead of their own, as by motives of curi- 
osity, by desire of change, and to have the name 
of being married. 

In complying with these tendencies of our 
nature, we are liable to be influenced by motives 
and resort to means which have an injurious in- 
fluence, and should therefore be avoided. In 
paying our addresses to each other with the in- 
tention to marry, we ought never to trifle with 
each other’s feelings, by teasing, quizzing and 
deceiving. The evils arising from such a course 

are twofold: 1st. It unhinges the judgment, and 
disqualifies the parties from making it an honest, 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


49 


serious transaction. 2d. It sows the seeds of 
future discord, jealousy, suspicion and contempt. 

Do not be so precise and regular in the time 
that you make your visits — both parties pre- 
paring for such occasions by embellishing and 
rendering their appearance foreign to nature; 
each parading their good qualities to the front,' 
showing how pleasant, kind, agreeable and po- 
lite they can be when they are prepared for it. 
From using these forced and artificial means to 
entertain each other, an acquaintance is only 
made with one s abilities for pleasing, and not 
for displeasing: the disagreeable traits of char- 
acter, not being necessary, are concealed ; but 
the occasion over, they manifest themselves in 
right good earnest, and when it is precisely too 
late the words “for better or for worse” have 
been pronounced. In your courting days you 
had the better , but now you- are prepared to ap- 
preciate the meaning of the latter term. 

It is a positive fact, that men and women are 
not heroes and angels, except upon the pages 
of a romance, - ~ 

When you are married, you will be obliged 
to come in contact whilst your faces are flushed 
by exercise, dresses disordered by labor, tempers 
4 


50 


PHRENOLOGY 


a little ruffled by trifling circumstances and an- 
noyances — when the toilet is not prepared with 
extra care, and many other trifles connected with 
“ little responsibilities,” establishing beyond a 
doubt, that earth is not heaven, and poor human 
nature something else than poetry. These 
things are so ; and you may as well study each 
other in these situations, as when “ dressed up” 
and seated in the parlor. In the one case, you 
are liable to be “ taken in;” and in the other, 
knowing what to expect, disappointment cannot 
creep in. Contentment must reign — giving a 
fair chance for happiness. 

Do not talk about who is going to rule, but 
act and speak as equals. 

There is nothing scarcely, appears more fool- 
ish than this absurd feeling of “ I am not to be 
dictated to,” “ I will have my own way,” “ I 
shall not sign away my liberty, I can tell you,” 
&,c.— the lady afraid to yield, for fear complete 
submission will be the result ; the husband, from 
dread of appearing to be under “ petticoat gov- 
ernment.” 

A civil war of this kind puts to flight most 
effectually all chance of domestic enjoyment. 
It is invariably the growth of foolish pride and 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


51 


morbid , little independence, as far removed from 
real dignity as light from darkness— oftentimes 
exhibited before marriage in persisting in certain 
actions or habits when their suspension is desired. 

It cannot be too strongly impressed upon your 
minds, that “ mutual forbearance is the touch- 
stone of domestic happiness.” “The angel of 
the marriage covenant bears the inscription upon 
each wing, which she folds in sorrow when the 
admonition is unheeded .” 

Do not let one do all the courting, the other 
only saying yes. 

Playing the “ dumb, belle” and silent lover, is 
a very silly mode of transacting business. No; 
it is your duty to unfold your characters in their 
true colors to each other. In the married state, 
it is your duty , and should be your pleasure , to 
sympathize and console with each other, and 
thus beget a winning and soothing confidence 
that does much towards causing home to be 
eagerly sought for. 

Do not say yes because it is the last chance . 
Never marry to get rid of the stigma of an old 
maid or old bachelor. 

It is an honor and a credit to many, that they 


52 


PtiREtiOLOGY 


have had prudence and sense of duty sufficient 
to control their feelings and enable them to 
have remained single. 

Many have committed wrong, moral sin, in 
entering into these relations, prompted by nar- 
row, Selfish desires, when they were not fit in- 
struments for giving to the world a healthy off- 
spring, and milch, much have they to answer 
for. Although the sins of the parents are visited 
upon the children, it is no evidence that they 
will escape with impunity — justice forbids it. 

Do not trifle with your affections, by keeping 
Company as a matter of curiosity or of opposition. 

Writers have dwelt with much effect upon 
the evils produced by novel reading, upon the 
intellect, but the effects of literary trifling, bad 
as they may be, fall far short of the ravages of 
hydra-headed social dissipation. Parties, routs, 
the strained and tender compliment, the sigh 
and protestation, the coquetting and flirting prac- 
ticed as mere pastime, are inevitable deadness 
of the heart . Persons who have passed but one 
season in amusements of this sort, have generally 
rendered themselves incapable of being influ- 
enced by natural and true affection — their feel- 
ings have been completely seared. 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


53 


Persons who have been drilled in all the tac- 
tics of fashion, should be resolutely avoided, 
nine cases out of ten. They have become sus- 
ceptible of but one love — the love of themselves. 
The plague has tainted their blood, producing 
certain death to all the warm and generous sym- 
pathies that should outpour from the cup of glad- 
ness in the secluded bosom of the family. 

Do not be overpersuaded or forced to marry, 
by friends or foes. 

In this all-important step, which has to do 
with your own individual happiness particularly, 
allow your friends and enemies to give you facts, 
and be thankful for them, but think for yourself; 
exercise your own judgment independently. By 
judgment I do not mean the calculations of mere 
intellect, but the whole mind, embracing the feel- 
ings, the sentiments and propensities. When 
the consent of these faculties of the mind have all 
been obtained, then it is certain you are under 
a moral obligation to be married, regardless of 
opposition. 

Do not make it a matter of superstition or of 
fatality. 

There is too much at stake : the step may 


54 


PHRENOLOGY 


produce weal or wo to others beside yourself. 
Your companion’s well-being in this world may 
be embittered. Your children, reared under 
such influences, will be very liable to have their 
social feelings chilled, their moral character vi- 
tiated. and your own portion composed of gall 
and wormwood, bitterness of heart and soul. 

The following fact will add force to the above 
remarks. A lady in affluent circumstances, re- 
siding in the eastern part of the State of Penn- 
sylvania, received the attentions of a clergyman. 
He proposed ; she required time for deliberation 
on account of injurious surmises ; was taken sick 
suddenly, and for some time her life despaired 
of. As she lay upon the bed in the very lowest 
state, the subject troubled her, and she prayed 
to God , that if it was His will she should marry 
this man, He would allow her to recover ; that 
if it was not His will, she might die. 

Well, in process of time the good woman re- 
covered, and thinking the hand of the Lord was 
visible in pointing out her duty, she married 
the clergyman, expecting he must be a good 
man, and one who would make her happy, but 
soon found her worst fears were nothing to the 
realities of the case. He soon commenced dis- 
playing the cloven foot — had been divorced from 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


55 


four wives, was dictatorial, unkind, licentious 
and brutal. His clerical robe served but to con- 
ceal the vile enormities of his character. 

They are living now in the State of Massa- 
chusetts, and her condition is truly deplorable. 
He has spent her property. She is obliged to 
support her children ; and he brings disgrace 
upon the family, and misery upon his wife, by 
his unmanly and base conduct, and has long since 
been deprived of his profession, to which he was 
a constant disgrace. If the woman had made 
rigid inquiries into his standing and character, 
instead of yielding to a decision of so impious 
kind, confining God’s power in a fixed channel, 
how much more reasonable and wise would have 
been her conduct. 

Do not excite your love by foreign stimu- 
lants. The influences of love and wine ought 
never to be united. 

Men, when under the excitement of intoxi- 
cating liquors, are not in full possession of all 
the faculties of the mind : they have excited 
their animal propensities, and in so doing ren- 
dered the manifestations of their feelings brutal. 
There is no woman of sense and purity through- 
out the land, but must, having the knowledge of 


56 


PHRENOLOGY 


the debasing influences of ardent spirits, 'the foul 
and demoniac crimes which have been commit- 
ted under the auspices of drunkenness, view the 
attentions of persons under this animal excite- 
ment as an insult of the blackest kind. 

One word here in reference to those fashiona- 
ble balls and dancing schools held at hotels 

the assembly room, where are congregated young 
and virtuous females, waited on by kind and at- 
tentive partners, generally immediately over a 
bar-room. Many a poor, wretched and ago- 
nized wife and mother is at this moment bitterly 
regretting the near proximity of that debasing 
and enthralling spot to the lively room where 
she was “ woo’d and won.” 

Nothing is intended to be said in opposition 
to the accomplishment of dancing — for, when 
carried on apart from unhallowed influences, it 
is a pleasant and graceful pastime. 

It is the duty of ladies and mothers to put 
down associations of this kind, for many young 
gentlemen, feeling embarrassed through timidity 
and bashfulness, obtain a little “ Dutch courage” 
in order that they may more readily throw off 
restraint — by this means planting a moral canker 
in their bosoms, which eventually “eateth into 
their very heart’s core.” Intoxicating drinks 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


57 


stir up the temper and the whole of the animal 
nature, stifling all the high and nobler qualities 
of man ; and parents must bear in mind, when 
their daughters are entrusted to persons who 
have the slightest tendency to indulgences, their 
happiness rests upon a very frail foundation. It 
is also an awful fact, that two-thirds of the idiots 
and insane in the land, have been the immediate 
result of one or both parties being accustomed 
to steep their brains, scorch their blood, and 
wither their muscles by the free use of this liquid 
fire. 

Finally, do not allow any one faculty of 
the mind, any one condition of the body, any 
one favorable circumstance or flattering remark, 
the enthusiasm of the moment, or the excitement 

of passion to balance all other considerations 

thus bringing about a partial uuion, and securing 
the possibility only of imperfect happiness. 

Those individuals who are governed by self- 
ish motives in these matters, will resort to dis- 
honest and improper means to accomplish their 
object. They have not a sufficient amount of 
conscience or principle to regulate and control 
them : the consequence of which is, there can 


58 


PHRENOLOGY 


be no confidence placed in them ; they are lia- 
ble at any and all times to go or be led astray, 
and are especially unfit for an assumption of the 
weighty responsibilities devolving upon heads of 
families. 

Persons of this character should be resolutely 
and determinedly avoided. From there being 
such men and women in society, can be traced 
the origin of so much deception, pretension, 
falsehood, flattery, assumed piety, strained po- 
liteness and artificial endeavors to entertain each 
other while together, which may be denominated 
the reefs and shoals of the sea of matrimony. 

Many unprincipled young men of fortune, 
leisure and accomplishments in our cities, spend 
most of their time in female society, using all 
their faculties and powers of pleasing with ap- 
parently honest intentions, laboring assiduously 
in order to secure the affections of young ladies, 
and afterwards make their dignified and lofty 
boasts of how many beautiful and charming 
young ladies are crazy after them, should they 
not proceed farther and trifle with their affections 
in the basest manner. Such men , or puppies 
rather, deserve to be branded with the blackest 
marks of infamy, the most indellible sign of dis- 
grace meriting nothing but obloquy and contempt. 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


59 


Unfortunately, characters of this kind are not 
confined entirely to males. Young women, too, 
regardless of consequences , turn coquets, pre- 
sent their charms and bright attractions, use then- 
best endeavors, exhibit excessive devotion and 
exclusive affection, and by these means decoy 
and lead astray, if not absolutely ruin, many an 
honest, worthy young man. The hearts of such 
ladies exist but in name ; they have long since 
been dissipated in thin air; they are only wor- 
thy of becoming the wives of the soulless per- 
sons described in the last paragraph. 

The world is full of this reckless and unprin- 
cipled way of trifling with the most ardent, in- 
fluential and endearing feeling of our nature. 

Were the evils brought upon society, families 
and individuals by this extensive but very per- 
nicious course of conduct thoroughly investigated 
and dwelt upon, you would be presented with 
the real first cause why there are so many lewd 
men and women, so much vice, immorality and 
licentiousness in our cities — unfold the origin of 
the wretchednes and despair of miserable thou- 
sands, and expose the causes of many an early 
death. 

It is the duty of every one, of which God 
holds them accountable for the performance, to 


60 


PHRENOLOGY 


use their personal influence in removing un- 
healthy tendencies, particularly of the kind that 
has been dwelt upon. 

As young people are now educated, many 
are not capable or qualified to discharge the du- 
ties which necessarily present themselves in the 
marriage relations. 

The primary powers of their minds, their in- 
clinations and passions, however, are not changed 
or modified to suit their abilities. 

They are urged on by the blind impulses of 
their nature, to the altar of marriage, no more 
prepared to fulfil their solemn vows, to discharge 
their duties, than is the mariner to navigate the 
broad surface of the mighty ocean without chart 
or compass. 

The education of young ladies, especially, is 
very defective in this respect, particularly among 
the more fashionable, wealthy and artificially 
accomplished. 

P arents and teachers are prone to give 
their children and pupils a fashionable and con- 
sequently polite and showy , but superficial, ed- 
ucation, teaching them how they can appear to 
the best advantage, attract attention by their 
brilliancy, and entertain company most success- 


APPLIED ■fO MARklAGE. 


61 


fully : by these means endeavoring to ensure a 
union that will gratify their pride and selfish 
feelings, instead of instructing them in relation 
to the great objects of life, how they can do the 
most good, render themselves the most useful, 
and their children the most happy after their 
marriage relations are formed. 

Instead of being taught and made to work 
and help support themselves, obtaining habits of 
method and regularity that are of unaccountable 
service in after life, securing health, hilarity, vi- 
vacity and sprightliness by the free and ready 
exercise of muscle and of mind, instead of evap- 
orating, sickness, disease, laziness and snappish - 
ness, by means of a delicious perspiration, spend- 
ing their time in some useful manner, and thus 
exerting a healthy and moral influence in soci- 
ety. Their parents become their slaves, their 
very drudges, and they are allowed to grow up 
in a debilitating and enervating idleness, their 
bodily powers only equalled in puerility by their 
mental — unable to take care of themselves or 
boldly meet difficulties which some unforeseen 
event may cast in their path, fitted only for toys 
and playthings, not for companions and confi- 
dants — the whole extent of their useful acquire- 
ments being, ability to dress fashionably, behave 


62 


PHRENOLOGY 


genteelly, walk and dance gracefully, play upon 
the piano very beautifully, talk very softly and 
sweetly, to ridicule the idea of coming in con- 
tact with any of the common places of life, pore 
over the sickly and trashy tales of a magazine , 
and amuse the company by a display of their 
personal attractions, natural and unnatural , hav- 
ing an unhealthy if not an immoral influence 
over others. Or if, perchance, they work , it is 
merely to show their taste upon some article of 
dress calculated to adorn their too artificial bod- 
ies, consulting neither health or convenience, or, 
perhaps, to put on their gloves and dust out the 
parlor, possibly to set the table, and yet very 
anxious to marry without understanding the first 
rudiments of housekeeping. 

Such wives and mothers ought not to be. tol- 
erated , and yet such a system of education is 
encouraged by the other sex, who are by far the 
greatest sufferers, being more fond of their wives 
and daughters when they appear well , even to 
the neglect of their families ; also by paying at- 
tentions and clustering around those young la- 
dies whose dress is most “ baby ” like. But 
when it is known, that very delicate and dis- 
torted forms, soft muscles and soft hands gen- 
erally accompany soft brains , they will no longer 


APPLIED TO MARRIAGE. 


63 


encourage such a false and pernicious system of 
education. The true principles of education, 
founded upon phrenology and physiology, would 
say, cultivate and improve the physical powers 
to the utmost, so as to secure health of body, 
strength of constitution, and the power of be- 
coming parents of children, not of weakness and 
effeminacy ; exercise the mind, the whole mind, 
bearing in view the fact that the brain, the ma- 
terial organ of the mind, is capable of being 
benefitted by regular tasks, and of being injured 
by excess, precisely in the same manner as the 
body can be weakened by any overaction. 

When the mental and physical organization 
of man is properly understood, and the laws by 
which those organizations are affected are obeyed, 
will families enjoy uninterrupted health, long 
life and uniform happiness. 

Man’s enjoyment in this life depends more 
upon the proper exercise of the social feelings 
and their gratification in the domestic relations, 
than upon any other condition in life. For him 
to enter upon these duties, and assume the nec- 
essary obligations without being thoroughly qual- 
ified and prepared, would be as great a sin and 
violation of duty, as for an ignorant man, unac- 


64 


PHRENOLOGY 


quainted with the principles of Christianity, and 
not enlightened by grace, to attempt teaching 
the ways of salvation. 

Parents and guardians bring many evils upon 
their children by exerting an improper or an un- 
timely influence over them. 

First. By exciting their ambition and prais- 
ing them until they have false notions of them- 
selves, making them anxious to marry out of, 
and above their sphere, besides unfitting them 
for discharging many a domestic task, from so 
great conceit and vanity, on account of its in- 
delicacy, roughness, &,c. 

Secondly . Opposing matches after an en- 
gagement has been contracted. When the af- 
fections have been fixed upon and called out by 
some one object, there is full as much danger to 
be apprehended from checking, or violently 
causing them to be removed, as there would be 
putting up with the disappointment, and making 
the best of it. Your authority should have been 
exerted before: you have awakened too late. 

Thirdly . Failing to give their children that 
instruction which is necessary in order to aid 
them in properly regulating and directing their 
social feelings. 


applied TO MARRIAGE. 


65 


The knowledge necessary, and the motives 
which should guide us in the formation of these 
relations, are — 

First. A thorough knowledge of ourselves, 
mentally and physically, and of the laws to 
which these organizations are subjected. Then, 
and not until then, are we prepared to under- 
stand with whom we can sympathize, and what 
class of qualities would be best adapted to our 
own. 

Secondly. We should become familiarly ac- 
quainted with the real nature and character of 
the individuals to whom we are paying our ad- 
dresses. 

Thirdly . We should understand the hered- 
itary condition of the family we intend to marry 
into its health, longevity and peculiarities, both 
mental and physical. The importance of this 
knowledge cannot be overrated. 

Fourthly. Capabilities for improvement and 
peculiar tendencies of mind, if any. 

We should change our situations and enter 
into the matrimonial relations solely with the 
intention of becoming more happy and useful. 

Jt should be looked at, reasoned upon and 
spoken of, as an honest and most important busi- 
5 


66 


PHRENOLOGY* 


ness. This treating serious subjects in a light, 
trifling, nonsensical manner, is quite injurious, 
and should be reprobated. 

We should do it with an eye upon our 
mutual and individual happiness, remembering 
that perfect happiness can only arise from the 
proper adaptation and exercise of all our natural 
powers, socially and morally, intellectually and 
physically — consequently, we should consult all 
of them, and gratify as many as is possible. 
And, above all, we should do it with proper re- 
gard for posterity, remembering that from three 
to six generations of our family will be directly 
affected by the choice we make* 


LECTURE II. 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 


It is now designed to present some of the evils 
resulting from the perversion of the means put 
into our hands to continue the race ; and here 
the most painful and distressing part of the sub- 
ject is entered upon. Indeed, it is far beyond 
the limits of time and space at present to do 
bare justice to a description of the dreadful effects 
resulting directly from these evils. Hereafter, 
if a second edition of this work should be de- 
manded by the public, a more extended and 
thorough treatise, devoted exclusively to this 
part of the subject, will be united to the present 
lecture. 

Our vagrants in the streets, our poor-houses, 
prisons, penitentiaries, insane hospitals, and a 
vast multitude of wretched victims, which no 


<38 


Hereditary Influence 


mao can number, filling every nook and corner 
of old Europe, and spreading with rapidity over 
young America, who are living out an existence 
of misery and torture, one and all rise up, hosts 
of lamed, blind, diseased and imbecile beings, 
as witnesses, and point to their several defects 
as the strongest testimony that can be uttered in 
behalf of abused nature and her broken laws. 

Many families are far too large for their means 
of support. Parents cannot, even in this favored 
land of plenty, support, by their o\Vn labor, a 
great many dependents, and how heavily must 
they be taxed in Europe, particularly in England, 
whose exclusive, narrow and selfish policy is so 
greatly at w r ar with the interests of the many. 
Lot the banner cry of “Bread or Blood,” now 
ringing throughout the length and breadth of 
that land of wealth and power, proclaim ! 

Why is it, that children are thrown out into 
the world, ignorant of almost every principle 
which it is important for them to understand, 
and necessary for them to practise, in order to 
render life either useful or happy ? — retarding 
man’s advancement and general civilization, un- 
til, in contemplation of the increasing evil, one 
despairs of the prophetic millenium, or only 
dreams of its realization in a far-off eternity of 


AND ITS EVILS. 


69 


time. Parents in these indigent circumstances 
are excusable, if they do not use the means to 
multiply and increase: indeed, it is their duty 
not to use them. But, instead of being guided 
by duty and the decisions of common sense 
tinctured with philanthropy, and wishing to be 
excused, these are precisely the ones who have 
the largest families. When their eyes are opened, 
and they not only see , but feel , the wretched 
and responsible situation in which they have 
placed themselves, they are very ready for an 
excuse, and by way of self-justification, to throw 
the entire blame off their own shoulders, upon 
the allotments of Providence. But Providence 
has kindly placed the whole matter in their 
hands, and they are to blame, and they alone, 
for any ills which may arise from a mismanage- 
ment of them. 

When attention is paid to the resulting con- 
sequences upon society, it must be admitted that 
this increase of children beyond all expected 
ability to properly educate their physical, moral 
and intellectual natures, is not only a manifest 
evil of the highest nature, but a positive and 
undeniable moral sin, and as such should be 
strictly guarded against. 


70 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


Difficulties in families will be found mostly to 
arise from a violation of the laws of nature in 
forming these matrimonial relations, or in a fail- 
ure to obey the mental law of harmony between 
the faculties after marriage. 

Sickness, suffering and premature death are 
frequently the result of improper marriages. 

To these general rules there are some excep- 
tions, especially in cases of disease. 

In the State of New York, in the Fall of the 
year 1840, a gentleman presented himself to 
Mr. L. N. Fowler for a phrenological examina- 
tion of his cranium. In the progress of the de- 
scription, it was remarked, that his cerebellum 
(which is the seat of the organ of Amativeness) 
was diseased, at present being in a state of ex- 
cessive inflammation. He requested a particular 
analysis should be given — which was done. 
The organ of Self-esteem was also very promi- 
nent and active, and when connected with the 
unnatural condition of the cerebellum, it was 
stated that he most likely was jealous of his 
wife, and very probably without cause or reason : 
the size and excitement of these particular facul- 
ties being sufficient to produce that state of feel- 
ing from their own immediate influence, without 
the assistance of circumstances. 


AND ITS EVILS. 


71 


He immediately observed that such was the 
fact; that he had suspected his wife for three or 
four years, and he thought he had good and suf- 
ficient grounds for his jealousy. 

The question was then asked, if he did not 
often feel a pain in the back portion of his head. 
He answered, Yes ; and that, at times, when 
this pain was at its height, his suspicions were 
the strongest, and his conduct the most violent. 
Had frequently insisted upon her being turned 
out of the church as unworthy of membership, 
and at such times had taken other strong meas- 
ures against her ; but his friends espoused the 
cause of his wife, and had persuaded him to 
travel, hoping that change of scene and new 
subjects for thought would wean his mind from 
these domestic misfortunes, and restore him to 
sanity upon this point. His consent was given 
to the arrangement, merely to pacify them ; and 
he insisted strenuously, that “ confirmation strong 
as proofs of Holy Writ’' remained for his belief, 
however bitter it was. The point was argued 
at length, and considerable endeavors made to 
influence his mind, and cause him to take a 
proper view of the subject — and not without 
some effect, although he left persisting in the 
soundness of his judgment in this department of 
the feelings. 


72 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


Sometime thereafter, he obtained an examina- 
tion from Mr. O. S. Fowler, who made a similar 
statement, and reasoned with him in the same 
manner, and upon the same point. 

He commenced studying himself thoroughly 
upon the principles of phrenology. His disease 
gradually gave way to the force of reason ; he 
readily made acknowledgments to his wife ; ex- 
planations were entered into; and the result is, 
that he is now established in a happy home. 

The origin of his disease was this : His wife 
had small Amativeness — was therefore cold- 
hearted; he had the organ very large, and not 
having his ardor of feeling reciprocated, brought 
on the inflammation, producing the disastrous 
consequences above mentioned, though they are 
now happily pacified. 

As the condition of man now is, many are not 
proper subjects to hand down to posterity a 
healthy, happy family. 

Persons laboring under hereditary diseases of 
any kind, should avoid becoming parents, for by 
so doing they multiply sorrow, suffering and 
early death. 

Persons of the same temperament, especially 
if on the extreme of that temperament, should 


AND ITS EVILS. 


73 


never be united. The welfare of their family 
actually demands an antagonism of physical 
characteristics. 

The evils which would result directly from 
the marriage of two highly Nervous persons, are : 
They would live too fast, enjoy themselves to 
an excess, and suffer in a proportionate degree ; 
consequently, health being impaired, querulous- 
ness and restlessness of spirit must be the result, 
leaving no room for uniformity and consistency 
of action. But the greatest misfortune is lodged 
upon the heads and bodies of their innocent off* 
spring, who are of so excitable, active, but fra- 
gile composition as to be heirs apparent for an 
occupancy of some lunatic asylum ; or if they 
escape that great calamity, they are endowed 
with feelings so keen, and susceptibilities so 
acute, that their existence is embittered from 
inability to look at the necessary toils and pri- 
vations of life with an approach to equanimity'. 

Facts can be given of sufficient number to 
establish as a principle, that insanity will uni- 
formly be the result of the combination of two 
entirely Nervous temperaments. 

The evils resulting from the Bilious. The 
Bilious temperament gives the frame-work of the 


74 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


man — the house he Jives in. It is indicated 
when in excess, by very coarse and large fea- 
tures, large bones and joints. It also comprises 
the fibrous or muscular system, and is the tem- 
perament which gives bodily strength and pow- 
ers of endurance. The brain is of thick, coarse, 
although strong fibre. Its results, as visible in 
the descendants, would be exhibited by the 
great predominance of physical strength over 
mental. Though as strong and tough as horses, 
they would be no more sensible or intellectual. 
Such individuals will form the “ hewers of wood 
and drawers of water,” but will never exert an 
influence as immortal thinking beings. 

A union of the exclusive Vital. This tem- 
perament has reference to the thoracic and ab- 
dominal regions of the body, and must be inti- 
mately associated with man’s physical existence; 
vital power being great, and life prolonged in 
exact proportion as these regions are strong, 
well-formed, balanced and healthy. An indi- 
vidual possessing this temperament, without re- 
ceiving any controlling or biassing influence from 
the Nervous and Bilious, would therefore live 
and breathe, but he must be entirely destitute 
of all motive for action and desire for thought. 


AND ITS EVILS. 


75 


The children produced by such a union would 
live, but their life, its pleasures and pains, would 
be wholly animal, and they would exhibit in 
force nothing but the selfish propensities — the 
Vital organs being directly connected with the 
base of the brain, where are lodged the animal 
propensities. 

The evils attending a union of the Lymphatic. 
This is a temperament whose claims to being 
recognized as such, are not at present received 
as authority by several phrenologists, but some 
are inclined to think rt merely the result of the 
Vital when under a certain form of disease. It 
is, however, a condition of the body which, from 
the influence it has upon the mind, must be the 
very antipodes of the Nervous or Mental tem- 
perament : the one being indicative of thought, 
clearness of intellect, of brightness and display, 
while the other is a sure sign of a “genius for 
good living and going to sleep.” Persons of 
this class require an impetus of no ordinary kind 
to produce mental or bodily exertion. Children 
born under these influences, are invariably dull, 
lazy, sluggish, mere logs — they are numerically 
a unit — in reality, a cipher. As in the first 
temperament the result would be insanity, in 


76 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


this it would be idiocy. Their existence would 
in fact exhibit only the phenomena of mere veg- 
etable life. 

There was a family residing in this State, two 
of whom are now living, who are marked illus- 
trations of this organization. Their career is an 
admirable illustration of the influence of physical 
condition upon the brain, thereby affecting the 
operations of the mind. Their names are Em- 
erson. They are and have lived almost their 
whole lives in bed. unable to express the sim- 
plest desire ; cannot turn themselves over from 
side to side, but must have assistance ; neither 
are they, although one has reached the senatorial 
age of forty-five, able to eat unassisted. Their 
brains are rather well formed, but the blood, the 
great nourisher of the system, rolls so turgidly 
through the veins that there can be no action 
generated. 

A balance of them all is the most desirable ; 
and what one is deficient in, let the other have 
in sufficient excess to act as a counterpoise : by 
this means, uniformity and evenness of action 
may be inherited by your children, instead of 
their becoming but second editions with numer- 
ous additional illustrations of their parents’ orig- 


AND ITS EVILS. 


77 


inal imperfections. If persons will arouse from 
lethargy, and make themselves thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the theory and philosophy of ihe 
temperaments, and put in practice the knowl- 
edge so obtained, there will be laid the corner- 
stone of a great social reform, which must pro- 
duce more blessings, dissipate more evils and 
advance mankind towards a state of perfection 
with greater rapidity, than any other measure of 
the day. 

You ng gentlemen, or men having formed in-* 
temperate and licentious habits before marriage, 
are very liable to retain them, and should there- 
fore receive no encouragement from the ladies. 
If they value the welfare of their family, wish to 
secure health and happiness in their union, and 
pay due regard to the moral improvement of so- 
ciety, they will, one and all, unite in reprobating 
by their actions, in the most positive manner , all 
tendencies of this nature. 

The desire or fondness for strong drink has 
been proved by facts, to be a condition of appe- 
tite capable of being entailed through successive 
generations. Think one moment what misery 
and wretchedness you may be the means of set- 
tling upon your poor, innocent and unoffending 


78 


Hereditary influence 


offspring from not attending to this one hereditary 
law ; and not upon them alone is the injury in- 
flicted, but on it goes through their descendants, 
gathering new strength and a wider career at 
every extension of the family, until the evil 
brought about by your direct agency assumes a 
magnitude that is incalculable. Can you ascribe 
to other cause than ignorance of the principle, 
that unnatural appetites when active in the pa- 
rents are generally implanted in the children, 
not by legal will , but by the stronger will of na- 
ture, the existence of the great army of drunk- 
ards, rank and file, militia and regulars, with 
which our country was filled two or three years 
since. 

What energetic and praiseworthy efforts have 
been made by a noble few, to check the im- 
pressment of new recruits, and to organize from 
deserters a cold-water army ; and how wonder- 
fully successful have they been. Their object, 
however, is hut half attained. They may re- 
form the present generation, but in your hands, 
mothers and daughters, there still remains a most 
important portion of this great work of the pres- 
ent century. It remains with you, whether there 
shall be planted in the hearts of the future world 
the poisonous seed, capable of bringing forth 


AffD ITS EVILS. 


79 

such bitter harvest. Come forward boldly and 
throw the weight of your mighty influence upon 
the side of this high cause. Imitate the noble 
example of those ladies of Rochester who have 

raised their gallant humanity banner “ Total 

abstinence from all licentiousness and all that 
intoxicates , or no husbands” Carry it out reso- 
lutely in practice, and future myriads will sing 
your praises in the sublime strains of heartfelt 
gratitude and reverence. 

Young ladies who devote their time to leisure 
amusements, and the follies that invariably at- 
tend them, should be regarded as entirely un- 
worthy the notice of those young men who have 
any regard for a healthy and happy family. 

They are entirely unqualified to discharge the 
duties of a mother and companion in a proper 
manner; and it is to be hoped that measures 
will be taken which will have the effect of open- 
ing the eyes of all more thoroughly upon this 
subject. That you will allow yourselves and your 
“fair, loved ones” to be victimized no longer, 
even if it is done in obedience to the imperious 
mandates of fashion, when that obedience ren- 
ders them incapable of transmitting to posterity 
that vital energy and mental power necessary 
for long life or distinction. 


80 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


It is true, that there are many persons in so- 
ciety of corrupt and unnatural tastes, who are 
gratified by existing Modes ; that young men, and 
married men too, there are, who encourage such 
fashions and habits ; they like, forsooth, to be 
entertained by young ladies of leisure and ac- 
complishments , having small waists and hare 
shoulders. 

But, we would ask, who are these men? 
What are their characters, habits and principles 1 
Enquire here, and turn your investigations from 
discovering what their connections and prospects 
are, into this channel. And mark the words. 
You will find that they are men of perverted 
passions, and generally accustomed to intemper- 
ate or licentious associations. 

You will then perceive, and what emotions 
of shame and mortification ought it to produce, 
that it is their animal natures and propensities 
which you are laboring so assiduously to please, 
while very few indeed are the efforts which you 
make to please by gratifying their moral and in- 
tellectual faculties. 

And here woman (confined to these circles, 
we trust,) is found ruining her moral purity and 
debasing herself, to please licentious man. A 
most degrading motive, truly ! For there is no 


and its evils. 


at 


doubt— you must admit it yourself— that it is 

man, and not woman, you are so anxious to 
plense. 


. 11 shou,(1 a,so be borne in mind, that the fash- 
ions of the day are carried to such an extent that 
we can have no correct idea of the natural form 
of a fashionable lady. The following anecdote 
will illustrate the point better than a lengthy 
treatise. However strong it may appear^r 
readers may place implicit confidence in its en- 
tire authenticity, for we assure them it is but one 
of those facts which ser,ve to establish the old 
adage, “ I ruth is stranger than fiction.*’ 

A few summers ago, while ascending the 
Hudson river, our attention was arrested by the 
peculiarity of the passengers. On this river, 
the boats are generally crowded with men whose 
anxious countenances and hurried, restless steps 
pronounce them men of business, and that their 
minds are busily absorbed in remembrance of 
some transaction, but now their character ap- 
peared to be changed. There were as many 
ladies as gentlemen aboard-a most unusual cir- 
cumstance. The looks of all were free and 
unrestrained. A great portion were bound for 
the Saratoga springs. The appearance it gave 
6 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


82 

the boat, was as if it were upon some merry 
pleasure excursion. It was this singularity that 
first prompted us to particularize in our observa- 
tions. We were soon arrested by the striking 
personal appearance of one young lady, who 
shone above all around — was the centre of at- 
traction — every one gazed upon her with admi- 
ration. She occupied a conspicuous position 
upon the promenade deck. Soon every one was 
remarking upon her. Whispers were passing 
around — “ What a beautiful young lady!” 
“ Hoiv perfectly handsome !” “ What a noble 

bust!” “ What grace!” One gentleman ex- 
claimed, quite ardently, to his companion — “ By 
Jove ! she is a goddess !” The ladies were 
making remarks of a similar nature. The fol- 
lowing I was particularly struck with. A mat- 
ronly lady observed to another of similar ap- 
pearance — “What a most beautiful and well- 
formed lady your young friend is 1” “Yes,” 
was the reply ; “ but you see her now as she 
lias been made by the art of the milliner: you 
should see her as nature has formed her! I 
can assure you, in that condition she is as fiat 
as a board!” 

It is to be hoped, from the influence of facts 
of this nature, in conjunction with the other 


AND ITS EVILS. 


83 


evils which have been mentioned, that honest 
young men will for their own sakes, come for- 
ward en masse , avow their • sentiments, and un- 
furl their Banner — Industry, together with 
honesty in dressing, or no wives. 

When this is done, distinctly understood and 
practised, shall we see a radical change in the 
dress and habits of the ladies, and not until then. 

Only let young men encourage Honesty 
and Industry, and see what a change there 
will be wrought in society. What a difference 
in our families and children ! What great im- 
provement may we not reasonably expect ! Let 
things go on as they now are, and in a few cen- 
turies the result will be seen and felt too, in this 
country by a small , dwarfish , consumptive and 
incipient race of mortals— upon whom will de- 
volve the honorable task of perpetuating the 
political existence, name and constitution of this \ 
republic. 

How are we situated at the present time? 
Why, in some circles, and those not very limited 
in extent, every third woman is an invalid, and 
likewise every sixth male. They are laboring 
under dyspepsia, particular weaknesses, and 
many other diseases of the kind — all produced 
by a violation of physical laws. The only true 


84 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


source of saving this country from dismember- 
ment, decreasing influence, and from being a 
nation of hospitals, is by commencing at once a 
great Social Reform. 

Examine the condition of the times, and see 
what can be foretold by their aspect. At what 
stage of the world, and at what period, as far 
back as our knowledge extends, has there been 
a similar upturning, loosening and stirring up of 
every principle and institution, moral, social, po- 
litical and intellectual ? Every one is beinnninsr 
to enquire into the abuses, visible and invisible, 
with which society is pregnant. Every one 
feels an indistinct prompting for a change. All 
are looking from the quarter from which it must 
emanate. When has the religious world been 
so distracted by dissension and differences of 
opinion ? Was there ever so many changes and 
innovations made in theology, as at the present 
time? When did science unfold truths of greater 
importance and in greater profusion, than at this 
moment ? Has the political world and the po- 
litical institutions of the day ever been in so 
strange a situation as they now are? When 
did our various systems of education differ as 
widely and hang as loosely together as they 
now do ? 


AND ITS EVILS. 


85 


None are stamped with the character of per- 
manency, for all seem aware that errors will and 
must be reformed. Does not every thing ap- 
pear to be hurrying into one grand reservoir, as 
>t were, where all principles shall become united 
mto one chaotic mass > Theologians, philoso- 
phers and politicians may, from the purest mo- 
tives, do all in their power to reduce this chaos 
to order, hut it must be of little or no avail. 
The commencement, to be complete and thor- 
ough, must be made farther back than their 
particular spheres of action : for all these vari- 
ous sytems are mere offsets from the social circle. 
Political government has originated from patri- 
archal authority. Education is affected materi- 
ally by social manners and customs. And so 
With all other institutions— they proceed directly 
or indirectly from the family circle. Let the 
reform be commenced here, upon the principles 
of phrenology and physiology, and a gradual 
process of regeneration will be entered upon that 
will produce the most salutary effects upon the 
habits, characters, motives and actions of all 
mankind. 

Parents and guardians must feel the full force 
of the obligation resting upon them, and in con- 


86 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


sequence, train their children for true happiness 
and usefulness. Young ladies, in particular, 
should be careful with whom they are familiar, 
and whom they encourage — for it must be borne 
in mind, that it is not every talented, wealthy, 
or fashionable young man that will make the 
best husband and father. 

In these matters, rest assured we cannot be 
too careful. Getting married is the most re- 
sponsible act we can do, as connected with our 
own happiness in this life, and through us to 
those who shall inherit after our death. No in- 
dividual is a proper subject to become an agent 
for the transmission of soul and body to pos- 
terity, unless he or she is free from all hered- 
itary diseases ; his or her organization sound 
and complete ; his or her mind and body 
free from all those habits or vices which tend to 
weaken our powers, debase our feelings, and 
render us morally degraded ; and he or she 
in the full, regular and natural exercise of all 
those powers and faculties which God, in infinite 
wisdom, has so beautifully and harmoniously 
adapted to the wants of our condition. 

One sufficient, amply sufficient, reason, if 
none others existed, why we should be thus 
particular, is, because we hand down to pos- 


AND ITS EVILS. 


87 


terity the qualities which we possess in the high- 
est activity and strength. 

Parents are to blame for the natural primitive 
defects of their children — for it is an inevitable 
law of nature, that constitutional qualities and 
deficiencies shall be hereditary. Children are 
impaired, and their physical structure illy bal- 
anced, from various causes in keeping with the 
varieties of organizations that become united. 
The marriage of those who are enfeebled by age, 
or debilitated by disease, must be productive of 
little stamina in the offspring. 

Those persons who are aware of their being 
under the influence of a constitutional tendency 
to any disease, have a moral law within them- 
selves why they should not enter into a matri- 
monial alliance. Look at some of our families? 
the diseases of insanity, idiocy, consumption, 
scrofula, and a host of others, have become in- 
corporated with them — regular heirlooms trans- 
mitted from father to son, and mother to daugh- 
ter, with far greater regularity and certainty than 
relics or property of any kind— for they may 
be dissipated, lost and destroyed, but the other 
runs throbbing through our veins, is united with 
our very system, and we become disenthralled 
from them only by the assistance of the great 
tyrant-freer, Death. 


88 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


We could deduce illustration upon illustration 
which would enforce that which is now stated, 
so that you could not violate the principle with- 
out doing your sense of right and wrong a 
grievous injury, from facts which have come un- 
der our own observation — where families have 
mourned the suicide of a grandfather, father and 
son, the lunacy of a grandmother, mother and 
daughter, and from families whose family regis- 
ters of deceased members is filled with accounts 
of “ died of consumption. ” 

Another principle, that can be relied upon as 
being a cause of deterioration, is a continuation 
of marriage in near relations. This course, when 
pursued but for a few generations, produces im- 
becility, degeneracy and inferiority in the de- 
scendants of those who were once renowned for 
strength and vigor. 

Early marriages are another fruitful source of 
imperfection. 

Principles of this nature and importance do 
exist, and are within your reach. As agents in 
this great and important work, it is your duty to 
become well acquainted with them. If you do 
not, you prove youselves unfaithful servants, and 
it is through your ignorance in going contrary to 
the laws of nature, that the world has been peo- 


AND ITS EVILS. 89 

pled with those who live out a miserable exist- 
ence and fill a premature grave. 

Lay it up in your memories, that we give to 
our children their bad heads and bodies. The 
Bible says, speaking of the sins of the children, 
“ And your sins will I visit upon your children 
and your children’s children unto the third and 
fourth generations;” and you may rely upon it, 
that this is the way the child receives the curse 
upon his head and body. 

It is high time that parents should recognize 
their obligation to understand these sources of 
hereditary influences better than they do ; and 
mothers, in particular — for if they properly un- 
derstood them, and were governed by their prin- 
ciples, which have for their distinct and only 
object the elevation of man towards perfection, 
they would do far more towards perfecting the 
human race, and ridding the world of vice and 
immorality, than all the benevolent and moral 
reform societies united. 

But notwithstanding this, the habits, dress and 
modes of living, as well as the education of 
young ladies, as we have in some instances en- 
deavored to show, are almost the reverse of 
what they should be, if they ever expect to be- 
come mothers of such men as Washington, 
Franklin, or Jefferson. 


90 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


Take the admitted fact, that the stronger and 
weaker faculties of the parents are transmitted 
to the child in similar proportions, and what an 
easy matter it would be for us to bear in mind 
those particular qualities which would be most 
desired in order to give balance, when we select 
our partners for life. Either there are laws, and 
cause and effect in this matter, or there are none. 
It is a certainty — a matter which can be wholly 
understood and advantage taken of it, or it is 
mere chance. 

If it can be shown to be capable of demon- 
stration, and that fortune* or luck has nothing to 
do with it, every one must immediately admit 
the paramount value of these principles, and 
feel the necessity of acting accordingly. 

The principle is admitted in full, and prac- 
tised upon with eminent success, in relation to 
the animal kingdom, as every farmer and indi- 
vidual of any practical information whatever, is 
aware. The natures of animals, so far as they 
can be operated upon by these general truths, is 
precisely similar to that of man throughout— 
from whence it follows, they must be equally 
applicable with regard to him. 

If there is law in these things, then it is a fair 
inference that in exact proportion as the parents 


AND ITS EVILS. 


91 


are perfectly organized, physically and men- 
tally, and in the full exercise of all the faculties 
of their mind and body ,*so will be their off- 
spring ; and that imperfection will be the result, 
in precise proportion as the parents are imper- 
fect, defective in proper exercise, or fail to com- 
ply with these rules which govern all organic 
matter. 

The truth of the matter is, you might as well 
expect sixty or a hundredfold of wheat from off 
a barren, sterile, sandy soil, as to expect perfect 
children from imperfect parents. 

The violation of the above laws, at some pe- 
riods of existence, is the cause why there is so 
much native imperfection and natural depravity 
in the world, and not because we were consti- 
tuted so frail and bad by the design of heaven, 
or that it proceeds from the fall of our forefath- 
ers. It has become high time that we should 
wake up to this subject. Its evils are sufficient- 
ly strong and glaring for us to take some of the 
blame to ourselves instead of casting the whole 
burden upon the head of poor old Adam. He 
has been our scapegoat long enough, and at this 
day of light and knowledge, we can allow for 
this sin of neglect only by an immediate and 
complete reform. 


^ HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 

There is another important principle which 
should be stated, and one whose bearings are as 
extensive in their application, as any connected 
with the subject, which is : 

As is the mental condition of the parents, 
particularly the mother, before the birth of the 
child — so is the state of the mind after birth ; 
and this principle also extends to an influence’ 
upon the bodily condition. It is stated by Finel, 
“ that out of ninety-two children born after the 
blowing up of the Arsenal at London, in 1793 , 
eight were affected by a species of cretinism’ 
eight died before the expiration of the fifth year, 
thirty-three languished through a miserable ex- 
istence of from nine to ten months’ duration, six- 
teen died upon coming into the world, and two 
were born with numerous fractures of the larger 
bones.” Children born during the Reign °of 
Terror, in F ranee, where to a vast proportion 
idiots and insane. Many cases are on record, 
some of which we have seen where the mother 
received some strong impression, stamped it up- 
on the child indellibly. A mother near Hudson, 
State of New York, became very anxious for a 
bunch of currants to gratify her appetite— her 
mmd continued resting upon the pleasure to be 
derived from them, and her child has a bunch 


ANJD ITS EVILS. 


93 

of currants impressed as plainly and as legibly 
as could be drawn, upon bis shoulders. In the 
eastern part of the Stale of Massachusetts, is a 
lad whose actions and manners closely resemble 
those of a monkey. He is idiotic, having a very 
small and contracted brow, occasioned by the 
mother’s being startled by one of these animals. 
In Worcester county, there is a lad of some 
twenty years of 'age who appears to bemimic- 
ing a turtle in every motion —he is also idiotic. 
The mind of his mother w as upset from its tran- 
quillity by the appearance of a turtle — hence the 
result ; and so we could proceed almost ad in - 
Jinitum , enumerating cases which supported the 
principle advanced, but there is no necessity for it. 

In the same manner, passions, desires, im- 
pulses and tendencies of mind as well as special 
talents are given to the child, by a special and 
particular exercise of these faculties in the pa- 
rent. Both physical and mental qualities cease 
to grow or are not formed at all, and in other 
cases are doubled in size and activity, because 
of the influence or impressions, circumstances 
have upon the mind of the mother before the 
birth of the child. 

Facts could be multiplied to almost any ex- 
tent, had we time; but this part of the subject 
will be treated of more extensively hereafter. 


94 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


If the principle can be clearly established that 
there is this intimate relationship and connection 
between the parent and child, then it is a sub- 
ject worth the attention of all, and demanding 
the serious notice of every man and woman who 
are or ever intend to become parents. 

Some person’s false delicacy and mock mod- 
esty may step in here, and pronounce us as 
using rather too strong and plain language, for a 
work intended for promiscuous circulation ; and 
so have they called out upon, many other occa- 
sions, with such influence too as has compelled 
ministers, teachers, and authors to have held 
their peace upon this most important of all sub- 
jects, connected with our earthly existence; un- 
til nature herself has burst forth into a flood of 
tears and is giving vent to unutterable anguish, 
because of her sufferings in consequence of the 
vice and wretchedness that has been brought in- 

O 

to the world through sheer and culpable igno- 
rance of these laws. 

As public sentiment becomes more correct 
and liberal, however, “ they will give cry,” and 
the thousands and millions suffering daily for 
the want of this knowledge will be enlightened. 

Is it not absurd for any one to advance the 
opinion that it is too delicate a subject to im- 


AND ITS EVILS. 


95 


prove the human race, while at the same time 
the animal kingdom is thought to be of sufficient 
importance — great pains are taken to improve 
our breeds of horses and sheep — papers publish- 
ed — books circulated, and much said and done 
about this subject : those individuals who are 
quite active in these stock improvements being 
looked upon as very public spirited men. Even 
the hog is not exempted from these attempts at 
improvement, and very successful have they been 
too. But man, the noblest work of God, made 
in His own image and likeness, and possessed 
of an immortal mind, and heir to a future exis- 
tence, besides having charge over the animals, 
must be allowed to go on, gather strength in im- 
purity and imperfections, growing more imper- 
fect daily, merely because of a proper modesty 
and delicacy. How excessively inconsistent — 
as though if it was improper for us to become 
acquainted with these law's, it would still be 
necessary for us to understand them in order 
properly to discharge the duties devolving upon 
us as parents. 

If it is really too delicate to discuss the prin- 
ciples necessary to be known and observed be- 
fore one is qualified to enter upon the duties in- 
cumbent upon this change of condition, then 


96 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


it will most certainly be entirely too delicate to 
get married, and absolutely shocking to become 
parents. 

You may also attempt to retard the progress of 
knowledge by saying, the time has not come yet 
for us to know all about these things. But if you 
wait until the world grows older and men more 
wise before you judge it advisable for these prin- 
ciples to be understood and put in operation, 
there can be but little doubt but that time would 
never be brought round, until nature should 
burst her bonds and give o’er the struggle. Ja- 
cob in his day, 1739 years before the Christian 
era, and when there was far less necessity for 
the knowledge, knew more about this subject 
than we do in the nineteenth century from that 
period. For information upon this subject, you 
are referred to the 30th and 31st chapters of 
Genesis, where you will find the principle car- 
ried out into practical operations. The fact 
that every eartman in our streets, and almost 
every farmer in the country, knows more about 
these things as connected with the animal kino-- 
dom, when a few paltry dollars and cents has 
been the inducement for investigation, than he 
does when applied to his own children, speaks 
volumes, and should be sufficient to stifle entirely 


AND ITS EVILS. 


97 


every approach to false delicacy and sickly sen- 
timent upon .his subject. Certain strict 'secta- 
rians and peculiar religionists may say it is as- 
suming too much— taking the work o( God out 
of his own hands, because Providence will al- 
ways direct in these matters. To them we 
would remark: so will Providence take care of 
our cattle in the same way, and furnish in them 
all the qualities we desire— rather a broken reed 
to lean upon in this respect. Faith would hardly 
prevent your stock from running out and down, 
unless good, prompt and substantial common 
sense works accompanied your belief. 

The true nature of the case is: The means 
for continuing the existence of man is put into 
our hands, and if we use them properly, we shall 
have the blessings of Providence as a matter of 
course ; but if we abuse this power, the curse 
will rest upon our own heads, and our children 
suffer the consequences. Society generally have 
been wrapped up in their cloaks of ignorance 
and innocence long enough. ADAM °and the 
DEVIL have borne the weighty burden that 
should have rested upon us, too long already. 

We, to be sure, have obeyed the command 
to increase and multiply ; but in a most reck- 
less, unprincipled and impious manner, without 
7 


93 


HEREDITARY INFLUENCE 


paying any regard whatever to many of the prin- 
ciples established by Almighty Power as guides 
for our conduct in these transactions. 

It is due from all you who are companions 
and parents, that you see to it and prepare 
yourselves to teach your children how to under- 
stand and obey these principles of their nature, 
so that they will be enabled not only to secure 
their own individual happiness, but that they 
should hand down to posterity a perfect organi- 
zation. 

And those who have yet to select “compan- 
ions for life ?> — let them consider the importance 
of the subject, the responsibility they are under 
to wield the power which is in their hands so as 
to produce happiness and avoid the danger of 
misery resulting therefrom instead, that perfec- 
tion and imperfection, together with the welfare 
of posterity, depends upon the choice you make. 

In order to see the truth of what has been 
stated, and feel its force, you have but to look 
into the bosoms of your own families, or of your 
acquaintance, and notice the difference between 
those who obey the laws of their organization 
and those who go contrary to them. Observe 
what kind of children they severally send out 
into the world. Mark the degree of health, 


AND ITS EVILS. 


99 


perfection and happiness there is in those fami- 
lies when compared, and you will not fail to 
foiget the delicacy ol the subject in contempla- 
tion of its vast importance. 































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APPENDIX. 




REMARKS UPON TIGHT-LACING. 


The evils inflicted upon the world by the un- 
natural process of contracting the waist by means 
of artificial pressure, so common with the young 
ladies of the present day, are very great, and 
closely connected in character with those occa- 
sioned by influence of hereditary diseases or 


102 


EVILS RESULTING 


malformation. We shall therefore devote some 
room in speaking of the practice, and its results. 

The cuts introduced above represent the out- 
line of two female forms : the first one is in- 
tended to exhibit the exact configuration of the 
celebrated statue of the Venus de Medici, which 
has been recognized by all as constituting the 
beau ideal of female comeliness. Mark the 
waist : there is seen the waving, undulating line 
of beauty, while the proportion has also the 
charm of being Nature’s real workmanship. 
There has been no twisting, distorting and nar- 
rowing down here ; all is as it should be — room 
sufficient for the lungs to play freely and unre- 
strained. Enough oxygen can be imbibed to 
give life and color to the blood, causing the 
cheek to bloom “ with the roseate hue of health,” 
betokening the presence of strength and activity. 
The second represents the outline of the form 
of a modern, exquisite, fashionable, tight-laced 
lady. What a striking contrast does it present 
to the allowed picture of “witching grace and 
beauty” beside it! This, all smoothness and 
harmoniously rounded ; that, all angles — a sharp- 
ness and abruptness of form absolutely cutting, 
and which one can associate only with the per- 
son of a virago — an unnatural monstrosity. Had 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


103 


a female been born in ancient times with such a 
developed figure, there can be no doubt but she 
would have been made an exhibition of — a nat- 
ural curiosity equal to Mr. Nellis, the man bom 
without arms, and far greater than the pig who 
rejoices in six pedal members. You must ac- 
knowledge it to be a distortion ; and such is the 
inevitable consequence of long persisted in tight- 
lacing. The annexed cuts will show clearly 
the disarrangement that takes place in the tho- 
racic region of the body. 



The ribs, as shown in the first figure, are seen 
in their natural position and developernent ; in 
the second, as artificially arranged by means of 
corsetting ! The former gradually expanding, 
giving ample room for the respiratory organs, 
the short ribs are quite open — while in the lat- 
ter, which represents precisely their position, 
they are folded in and wrapped over the spine, 
as it were, reversing almost their true position. 


104 


EVILS RESULTING 


We now quote from “ Remarks of Dr. Charles 
Caldwell upon Physical Education,’’ a few ob- 
servations upon this custom. They are the best 
that could be given upon the subject ; and his 
Ueatise being very limited in its circulation, they 
are probably new to all of our readers. 

An article of dress remains to be noticed, 
which is immeasurably worse, in its effects, than 
all those whose influence I have considered. 
Motives of prudence, if not of gallantry, might 
impose silence on me respecting it, did not a Re- 
gard for truth and duty, and a wish to be useful, 
invoke me to speak out. The article makes a 
part of the apparel, 1 may not say the ornament 
of women, whose delicacy I would, in no case, 
willingly offend, and whose displeasure I would 
never intentionally incur, except in an effort to 
do her good. It is probably already conjectured, 
that my allusion is to corsets ; if so, the conjec- 
ture is correct— I do allude to corsets, and pro- 
nounce them, most seriously, an alarming evil. 

The crippling machinery, with which the 
females of China compress and disfigure their 
feet and ancles, making the former too small, 
and the latter too thick and clumsy, are innocent 
to them. Corsets compress and disfigure a por- 
tion of the system infinitely more important, than 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


105 


the mere termination of the lower extremities. 
While the Pagan ladies confine their attack to 
the out-posts of life, the fair Christians assault 
the citadel. By curtailing the dimensions of 
two great cavities of the body, corsets obstruct 
the growth, and impair the functions of the or- 
gans they contain. And it has been already 
stated, that these are among t t he governing or- 
gans of the body, whose injury or unsound con- 
dition proves prejudicial to every other portion 
of it. I allude to the stomach, liver, and all the 
other chyle-making and chyle-carrying viscera, 
and to the heart, lungs, and large blood-vessels. 
These are all compressed and deranged in their 
functions, and most of them reduced in their 
size, removed from their places, and altered in 
their shape, by tight corsetting. It is in vain to 
deny the truth of this, as an excuse for disre- 
garding the warning it imparts. The fact can 
and be, has repeatedly been demonstrated in 
anatomical researches. I shall exhibit to you, 
presently, satisfactory proof of it. 

To secure to adult females what are called 
fine figures — which mean waists, shoulders and 
hips, quite out of symmetry with each other, and 
with the rest of the body — the corset screws are 
applied to them, while they are young girls, 


106 


EVILS RESULTING 


their whole ' systems being tender, and their 
bones comparatively soft and flexible. The con- 
sequence is, that when the lacing is tight, — and 
it is always too tight, for there should be none 
at all of it — their ribs, especially the false ones, 
are pressed inwardly, to such an extent, that 
their front ends nearly touch each other, if they 
do not actually overlap ; whereas, in their nat- 
ural position, they are wide apart. Even the 
upper ribs are, at times, so pressed on, as to be 
flattened, or rather straightened, in their lateral 
arches, and protruded forward, carrying along 
with them the breast-bone, to which they are 
attached. Thus is the whole trunk of the body 
altered in its figure and dimensions, but not im- 
proved. Far from it. All is for the worse, as 
well in appearance, as effect. The abdominal 
cavity, being in this way preternaturally straight- 
ened in a horizontal direction, its viscera are 
pressed inordinately upward against the dia- 
phragm. That membrane being thus forced up- 
wards also, compresses in its turn, the lungs, 
heart, and large blood-vessels, and brings them 
more or less into collision with the thoracic duct, 
obstructing, in some degree, the movement of 
the chyle. In this forced and unnatural condi- 
tion of things, all the functions of these viscera, 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


107 


so fundamentally necessary, not merely to the 
well-being of the system, but its very existence 
are deranged- by compression. Let us glance, 
in detail, at the mass of mischief thence arising. 

The whole digestive apparatus being impaired 
in its action, dyspeptic affections follow ; nei- 
ther is a sufficient amount of wholesome chyle 
formed, nor of bile secreted, both of which are 
so indispensable to a sound state of the blood, 
and in other respects so important to the system ; 
and the sympathetic influence of the unhealthy 
organs, on the other parts of the body is render- 
ed deleterious. Add to this, that the compressed 
organs themselves, being weakened, are unusu- 
ally liable to further disease from the action of 
any morbific cause. 

The lungs being enfeebled and deranged, not 
only is respiration defective, and the blood im- 
perfectly matured and vitalized, but they them- 
selves, in common with the stomach and liver, 
and other associated parts, are in a state of in- 
creased liability to additional suffering. Hence 
hemopthisis, pulmonary consumption, and drop- 
sy of the chest often ensue. 

I knew a young female of some distinction, 
as respected both her mind and family, in the' 
city of New York, who, some years, ago, became 


103 


EVILS RESULTING 


known from tight corsetting, by the name of the 
“Lady with the small waist!” Notwithstand- 
ing her good sense in other things, this excited 
her ambition to render herself still more worthy 
of the title, and to prevent, if possible, in others, 
all competition for it. She therefore increased 
the tightness of her corsets, until she became 
hump-shouldered, and died in consumption. Nor 
did any one doubt that her corsets were the 
cause. She was married, and left an infant son, 
who, from the slenderness of his frame and the 
delicacy of his constitution, is threatened with 
his mother’s complaint. He inherits her corset- 
broken constitution. 

Of the heart, the same is true. From its 
compressed and debilitated condition, it becomes 
affected with palpitation, dropsy, inflammation 
or some other malady — perhaps aneurism — and 
is incompetent to the vigorous circulation of the 
blood. Hence every portion of the system suf- 
fers — the brain and nerves not excepted, they 
depending, like other organs, on the arterial blood, 
for their health and power of action. Even the 
nerves of the organs subjected to pressure are 
mechanically injured. Since the introduction 
of corsets as an article of dress, diseases of the 
heart, among females, are much more frequent 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


109 


than formerly, and they have been traced to 
that cause in innumerable instances. Cases of 
the kind could be easily cited. Respecting 
schirrous and cancerous affections of the breasts, 
in women advanced in life, the same is true! 
These complaints are far more prevalent now 
than they were before the present ruinous style 
of lacing. 

From the foregoing view of their destructive 
effects on the female system, added to another, 
which motives of delicacy forbids me to men- 
tion,* it is neither unjust nor extravagant to say 

' * allusion will he readily understood to be th >t dim- 
inution of the abdomin 1 cavity, which prevents the full 
expansion of the gravid uterus. This necessarily dimin- 
ishes the Size and vigor of the foetus, in a corresponding 
degree, and implants in it the elements of future disease. 
For unnatural compression can scarcely injure it less be- 
fore birth, than after it. Prema ure parturition, is often 
the effect of this forced and restricted condition of the 
organs. 

Let me not be told, that females lay aside their corsets 
or loosen them greatly during gestation. That matters 
but little. The damage is already done, and cannot be 
repaired. The diminution, I mean of the abdominal cav- 
ity is already produced, and rendered permanent hy the 
pressure of the ribs inwardly, and their having become 
fully ossified and fixed in that position. So confident 
were the Spartans of the importance attached to the full 
dimensions of the abdominal cavity of females, that they 
prescribed by law', the form of dress they were to wear 


110 


EVILS RESULTING 


of corsets, that they threaten a degeneracy of 
the human race. And, were they worn by all 
females, as they are by riiany, they would as 
certainly produce it, as an impaired fruit-tree 
yields faded fruit — and on the same ground. 
The descendants of tight corsetling moljiers , will 
never become the luminaries and leaders of the 
world. The mothers of Alexander and Hanni- 
bal, Caesar and Napoleon, never distorted their 
persons by such a practice. Nor is the whole 
mischief of those articles yet summed up. 

The straightness of the spinal column depends 
on the strength of the muscles that support it. 
But those muscles are enfeebled by the pressure 
of corsets. Hence the spine bends and becomes 
distorted. Instances of crooked spine have been 

during pregnancy ; and its leading feature was its loose- 
ness, that it might produce no injurious pressure. I need 
scarcely add, that the Spartans surpassed the other inhab- 
itants of Greece, in their size, strength, and hardihood, 
as well as in their fine personal preportions. 

An agriculturalist has a stock cf beautiful and valuable 
horses. What effect would he produce on their progeny, 
by so bandaging the females, when young, as to take 
from their abdominal cavities, a third of their size ? I 
answer, deep deterioration. Nor is that produced on the 
human family, by a similar practice, less striking. Were 
the higher classes of the inhabitants of Europe larger 
and stronger, a few centuries ago, than they are now ? 
They were not the descendants of corsetted mothers. 


PROM TIGHT-LACING. 


Ill 


fearfully multiplied in the fashionable female cir- 
cles of Liwope and America, since the beginning 
of the present century ; while in Greece, Tut- 
ke} , Persia, Arabia, and other parts ol Asia, as 
well as in Africa, where no tight forms of dress 
are thought of, it is almost unknown. Nor does 
it appear among our own countrywomen, whose 
persons are suffered to retain the shape, which 
God intended for them. This breach of his 
law, therefore, inflicts the penalty incurred by 
the fault. 

It appears, from actual computation, that, of 
the females, who have been accustomed, from 
early life, to tight corsetting, nearly one-fourth 
have some unnatural and disfiguring flexure of 
the spine ! By not a few observers and calcu- 
lators, the proportion is maintained to be much 
greater. A Scottish gentleman, of distinction, 
assures us, that he has examined about two 
hundred young,females, in fashionable boarding- 
schools, and that scarcely one of them was free 
from some sort of corset-injury. Those, whose 
spines were not distorted, had unsightly effects 
produced on their shoulder-blades, collar-bones, 
or some other part of the chest, which stuffing 
and wadding would be requisite to conceal. 
Some were hunch-backed, and, in not a few, 


112 


EVILS RESULTING 


one shoulder was higher than the other; effects, 
which, in our own country, are much more fre- 
quent. than is generally suspected. In no indi- 
vidual, was true persona! symmetry amended by 
the practice ; while, in almost every one it was 
impaired, and, in many, destroyed. In fact, 
such pressure cannot fail to injure the symmetry 
of the trunk, that being its direct tendency. 
The custom, therefore, is as foreign from correct 
tasie, as from sound philosophy — and l was near 
saying, from humanity and moral rectitude. 

Woman was not intended to be turned, by 
artificial means, into an insect, with broad square 
shoulders, and a spindle waist. The latter por- 
tion o( her body was designed to be something 
more than skin and bone. For her benefit, as 
well as for the elegance of her form, nature has 
surrounded it with substantial muscles, and cel- 
lular tissue, which ought not to be sported with 
and wasted, in compliance with fashion and a 
spurious taste. And she may rest assured that 
she is not only more healthy, vigorous and com- 
fortable, but also an object of greater attraction, 
with a flexible and fleshy, than with a shrivelled, 
stiffened and skinny waist. Nor are the female 
shoulders broad and square, by nature , which 
alone gives patterns of real beauty. An attempt 


from tight-lacing. 


113 


to render them so by art, therefore is equally 
repugnant to correct taste and sound judgment. 
Jt et such is the effect of tight corsetting. P re . 
venting the blood from circulating freely” through 
the muscles of the lower part of the trunk, or 
rather of its middle, it throws it into those of its 
upper portion, preternaturally nourishing and 
enlarging them, and raising and squaring the 
shoulders, and rendering them pointed. The 
mere mechanical action of corsets, contributes 
to the latter effect, by forcing upward the mus- 
cles of the chest, together with the upper ribs, 
shoulder-blades, and collar-bones. And time 
renders the deformity permanent. No woman, 
who has worn tight corsets from her girlhood’ 
has, or ever will have, those important parts of 
her frame in their proper places; they are all 
more or less dislocated ; and the effect produc- 
ed, is a direct deviation from beauty of form. 
Burke, in speaking of the fascinating elegance 
of the female bust, in his treatise on the “ Sub- 
lime and Beautiful,” gives a description of it ex- 
tremely different from the bust of a well-corset- 
ted fashionable of the present day. His just and 
glowing picture is made up entirely of easy 
slopes and graceful curve lines. We have too 
much now of points, angles, and masculine 
8 


114 


EVILS. RESULTING 


squareness. Yet the female figure, when not 
put out of shape, is as beautiful now as it was 
then. Independently of the injury done to 
health, the personal disfiguration produced by 
tight corsets, hogshead skirts, and shoulder bal- 
loons. is a lasting reproach on the taste of the 
times. 

It is to man that nature has given broad, 
square and Brawny shoulders, and a waist com- 
paratively narrow. And, so far as tight corsets 
and other articles of dress may avail, woman is 
usurping his figure. I need scarcely add, that, 
in grace and beauty of person, which confer on 
her much of her attractiveness and power, and 
should therefore be among the cherished objects 
of her ambition, she is losing greatly by the 
change. 

Man submits to woman, and courts her ap- 
probation and smiles ; his best affections cling 
to her on account of her womanly qualities. 
Any thing masculine in her, excites his dissatis- 
faction, not to give the feeling a stronger name. 
And broad, square, shoulders are masculine, 
suited only to a man, and a virago. There is 
in them nothing of that delicacy, appeal for pro- 
tection, and all subduing loveliness, which we 
instinctively attach to the word feminine . In- 


from tight-lacing. 


115 


Stead of doing aught, therefore, to create in her- 
self such a form of person, woman should shun 
« as she would deformity, of any other kind. 

I have said that tight corsetting, obstructing 
the free passage of the blood downward, throws 
it into the superior portion of the trunk. But it 
does more ; it forces it, in preternatural quanti- 
ties hut impaired in quality, into the head, and 
produces there, many forms of disease that are 
painful and annoying, and some that are dan- 
gerous. Among these are headache, giddiness, 
bleeding at the nose, imperfect vision, and oth- 
er affections of the eyes, noise in the ears, con- 
vulsions, and apoplexy. Fainting is another 
effect of this preternatural accumulation of blood 
in the brain, the reason of which is plain. While 
the corsets are on and laced, a sufficient quantity 
of blood is sent to the brain to enable that or- 
gan to sustain, by its influence, the heart and 
muscles of voluntary motion, and hold them to 
their functions. ’As soon, however, as the cor- 
sets are unlaced, the blood forsakes the brain, in 
part, and flows naturally through its downward 
channels. The consequence is obvious. The 
drain being thus enfeebled for want of blood ne- 
cessary for its vitality, and the functions it per- 
forms, and its invigorating influence being no 


116 EVILS RESULTING 

longer extended to the system generally, the 
heart and muscles fail in their action, and the 
individual faints. This occurrence takes place 
on the same ground with fainting from venesec- 
tion, or any other form of hemorrhagy. Too 
much blood is withdrawn from the brain. That 
viscus is deprived, of course, of much of its 
own vitality and power to act. Nor is this all. 
It is deprived, also, of much of the material, 
from which it prepares its sustaining influence 
for the body generally. For whatever the mat- 
ter of cerebral influence may be, it is prepared 
from the blood as certainly as bile and saliva 
are. 

Almost all females who lace tightly, complain 
of weakness, when their corsets are removed ; 
and many of them are obliged to assume ^hori- 
zontal posture to escape asphyxia. Worse still. 
Some are compelled to wear their corsets as a 
part of their night dress ! Even a horizontal 
posture, does not secure them from a tendency 
to faint. This is so deplorable a condition, that 
the practice which induces it involves criminality. 
Many acts are called felonious, and made pun- 
ishable by law, which, contrasted with it, are 
innocent. By permitting it, parents, especially 
mothers, assume a responsibility, which might 


from tight-lacing. H7 

well make them tremble. They are accessory 
to its consequences, however fatal. Indeed 
possessing as they do, full powers of prevention, 
they should be considered principals. 

Perhaps all females who wear corsets, though 
they may not faint on removing them, nor even 
feel a tendency to that effect, complain of un- 
easiness and debility in the back or some other 
part of the trunk. The reason is plain. The 
muscles of the part being weakened by pressure, 
require the continuance of it, as the sot does the 
stimulus of his dram, to give them tone and 
strength sufficient to sustain the weight of the 
body, in an erect position. Hence the individ- 
ual bends the trunk ungracefully ; and, unless 
vigor of the muscles be restored, she is threaten- 
ed vith a spinal curvature.* 

* Many women of intelligence and experience are in- 
clined to believe, that some form of bracing around the 
female waist is, if not essential, highly useful, in giving 
support to the body, and maintaining its erect posture. 
This is a mistake. Such artificial support is required, 
only as a consequence of disease, or from the debilitated* 
condition of the muscles, by previous tight lacing. True 
the muscles of the female body are feebler than those 
of the male. But, corresponding to this, the weight of 
the body is less. In consequence of this fitness , the trunk 
of woman requires, by nature, no more artificial aid to 
keep it straight, than the trunk of man. Hence the ele- 


118 


EVILS RESl/LTlNGf 


Even beauty of countenance is impaired, and 
in time destroyed by tight corsets. Do you ask 
me in what way ? I answer, that those instru- 
ments of mischief wither in the complexion, the 
freshness of health, and substitute for it the sal- 
lowness of disease — on the spots where the rose 
and the ruby had shed their lustre, they pour 
bile, and sprinkle ashes. They do still more, 
and worse. They dapple the cheek with un- 
sightly blotches, convert its fine cuticle into a 
motley scurf, blear the eyes, discolor the teeth, 
and dissolve them by caries and tip the nose 
with cranberry red. That effects of this de- 
scription often result from gastric and hepatic 
derangement, every practitioner of medicine 
knows. And it has been already show'n, that 
such derangement is produced by corsets. 

But those articles make still more fatal havoc 
of female beauty, by imprinting on the counte- 
nance — not premature wrinkles — that could be 


gance of the female form, in Georgia, Circasia, and other 
parts of Asia, where tightness of dress is unfashionable 
and unknown. The necessity of corsets, therefore, t® 
sustain the person, arises from the misfortune of having 
ever worn them. And, unless the practice be abandoned, 
that misfortune, like other constitutional defects, will pass 
from mother to daughter, in an increasing ratio, until it 
shall result in a fearful degeneracy of our race. 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


119 


borne — but marks of the decay of mental beauty 
— 1 mean deep and indeliible lines of peevish- 
ness, fretfulness, and ill-temper, the bitter result 
of impaired health. No form of indisposition so 
incurably ruins the temper of woman, as that 
which prematurely destroys her beauty, espec- 
ially if she feels conscious that her own indiscre- 
tions have been instrumental in its production. 
To the truth of this, experience testifies. Inde- 
pendently, moreover, of their cause, no other 
eomplaints pour into the temper such acerbity 
and bitterness, as those of the digestive organs. 
Th is is also the result of experience. Man, but 
more especially woman, bears fever, pulmonary 
consumption, fractures, wounds, and other forms 
of injury and disease, with a patience and mild- 
ness, which, if they do not improve her personal 
beauty, increase her loveliness, and add tenfold 
to the sympathy and sorrow felt for her suffering. 
But dyspeptic affections, especially, I repeat, if 
a busy and tormenting consciousness whispers 
hourly into her ear, that she has herself con- 
tributed to their production, by a practice she 
might have avoided, and of the ruinous effects 
of which she was repeatedly warned — -com- 
plaints of this description are submitted to, by 
her, in a different spirit. She becomes irritable, 


120 


EVILS RESULTING 


capricious, gloomy, and full of complaints and 
fearful imaginings. Unhappy in herself, she 
seems, in contradiction with her nature, to forget 
or disregard the happiness of others, and does 
not even shrink from proving the bane of it. I 
intend not these remarks, as a censure on wo- 
man. Far from it. I mean them as a denun- 
ciation — and would that it were exterminating— 
of the abominable practice, that destroys her 
peace, and mars her loveliness. 

Under this head, I shall only add, that, in the 
higher walks of life, our fair countrywomen, es- 
pecially in the Southern States, are more delicate 
and feeble in constitution, and therefore less ro- 
bust in health, than they are in Europe — more 
so, certainly, than they are in Great Britain, 
France, or Germany. The slenderness of their 
flames, and the semi-pallidness of their com- 
plexions testify to it. It is noticed by all stran- 
gers of observation, and cannot be otherwise 
regarded, than as an evil, ominous of the degen- 
eracy of our descendants. Women constitu- 
tionally feeble cannot be the mothers of a vig- 
orous offspring. There is reason to fear, that 
this fragile delicateness will, by means of a spu- 
rious taste, pass into an element of female beauty 
in the United States ; and that will render it a 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


121 


national evil to endure for ages. That this will 
be the case, is not to be doubted, unless the 
proper remedy be applied. Nor is that remedy 
unknown, of difficult application, or dubious ef- 
fect. It consists in a well-directed physical 
education. That that will remove the evil, ap- 
pears from the fact, that the females of our 
country, in the middle and lower ranks of life, 
who do not injure themselves by their modes of 
dress, are as healthy and vigorous as any in the 
world. No man of taste wishes to see our 
highly-cultivated women with milk-maid com- 
plexions, or harvest-field persons. But had 
they a little more of both than they now pos- 
sess, they would be not only more comfortable 
in themselves, but more lovely in the eyes of 
others. In the European countries referred to, 
cultivated females neither house themselves so 
much, nor marry at so early an age, as they do 
in the United States. Hence their health is 
better, and their frames stronger. 

I know of but one other custom, so perfectly 
calculated to produce a degeneracy of the hu- 
man race, as that of contracting the dimensions 
of the waist of woman, weakening her constitu- 
tion, and distorting her spine ; and even that is, 
in some respects, less injurious. 1 allude to the 


"EVILS RESULTING 


12S 

practice of the Caribs, the most brutal and fero- 
cious tribe of American Indians, in flattening 
their heads. Nor does the custom of the sav- 
age produce deformity more real, than that of 
the civilized and fashionable female. Yet the 
effects of the one are looked on with professed 
admiration ; while those of the other are re- 
garded with horror. Compared to either of 
them, the practice of the Chinese ladies, as al- 
ready stated, in disfiguring their feet and ancles, 
is taste and innocence. 


TO A TIGHT-LACING LADY. 

Lace up! lace up! — another straining give! 

Just try another pinch or two! 

Why live as Nature fashion’d thee to live, 
And do as she would have thee do, 

And let her guide, 

And Truth preside, 

To show their workmanship in thee, 

And what a woman true should be, 

And stamp their value on her, 

When you with bone and rope can make 
A thing much better, 

And one that Fashion’s eye shall take— 
A truer letter? 4 


THOM TIGUT-LACIftG. 


123 


What signifies a form of just dimensions, 

And room enough to breathe and feast? 

What need to strength have you to make pretensions. 
Whilst ladies fine should have the least j 
Nor vulgar forms 
To bear the storms, 

And fit to brave the open border, 

And square to Nature’s rule and order, 

And know the pleasure of it, 

Whilst you a blanch’d and slender frame 
Can trim to fashion, 

And light in hearts of fools a flame, 

And silly passion ? 

What matters it, that you was made to think, 

And act, and be the best of all 

The works of Wisdom, form’d to bless, and link 
Rough man to Heaven, and list its call, 

And beckon him 
From starlight dim, 

And point him to a brighter light — 

Remove the scales that dim his sight, 

And bless him in his lot, 

Whilst you can form, with stick and string, 

A thing to craze him, 

And by such deeds suppose you bring 
Him joys to raise him ? 

What signifies the loss of ease and health, 

And native grace and dignity ? 

What signifies to count such trifles wealth, 

And like a vulgar spinster be, 

With strength for duty. 


124 


EVILS RESULTING 


And toil for beauty, 

And power to help ourself along 1 , 

Let fortune warp it right or wrong, 

And live so independent, 

Whilst you can look so London-dollish, 
And be so pretty, 

And wear so cute a grace and polish, 
And seem so witty ? 

Lace up, and end your artificial life! 

For you can be no more of use, 

Or worth, as mother, sister, friend, or wife, 
You’ve done to Nature such abuse, 

And crippled her, 

And still prefer 

Your lame deformity to strength, 

And health, and life of promised length, 
If you would trustful be. 

Lace up, and pay the compensation 
That she requires — 

She never bears such mutilation, 

Nor such desires. 


FROM TIGHT-LACING. 


125 


REPLY OF NATURE. 

Preach not your “delicate” to me — 

Wind not your cordage round my heart— 
My Maker, thank Him, made me free — 

Nor will 1 with my freedom part : 

While life is mine, I’ll not resign 
My being to the hand of Art. 

No: let me breathe His own pure air, 

With lungs that love the healthful draught — 
The precious gift He does not spare, 

Or arm each breath with deadly shaft — 

The fount is free and sweet to me, 

From whence the cup of life is quaffed. 

No : let me thrust off Fashion’s power, 

Nor fetter wear, or link of chain — 

Beneath her frown I will not cower — 

Her wild dictation I disdain — 

I scorn her sway, and turn away, 

Disgusted, from her tyrant reign. 

I dare not lay upon this frame 
The hand of suicidal strife — 

My Father has a rightful claim 
To every energy of life — 

And will not He as angry be 

With murderous cord as murderous knife? 


126 


TIGHT-LACING. 


I 


O, save me from the dreadful doom 
Of those who throw their lives away ; 

O, save me from the unhonored tomb, 

Whose tenant is life-cheated clay : 

I will not call for Death’s dark pall 
Till Heaven appoint my dying day. 

Methinks ’twere peace, when life shall cease, 
To give my dust, a well-kept trust, 

To Him who lent the boon at first. 

Lace up? I will not! What care I 
For slender waist ? ’Tis not my taste. 

I would not be a butterfly, 

To dance, to flutter, and to die — 

To hear my “ praises” sung 
By Flattery’s lying longue, 

And know, and feel the bow of steel 
Were aimed at me, by the same hand, 

If I dared flee from Fashion’s band. 

I scorn the soulless, cringing minion, 

That tamely hows to such dominion. 

I will not lace : ’tis not my trade ; 

Nor will I ask the pleasant task— 

This frame of mine was never made 
To be on “beauty’s” altar laid, 

To live ’twixt binding cords 
And silly, sickening words, 

Disdainfully and painfully: 

No— give me room to think and speak 

Let health’s fresh bloom adorn my cheek 

I’ll find “accomplishments” in duty, 

Nor seek “pale, languishing,” for beauty. 


DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SEXES. 



We give above drawings illustrative of the 
differences in form between the sexes. The 
male and female organizations are such as to 
conform most happily to the different circles 


128 


DIFFERENCE 


moved in, and opposite duties to be performed 
by each respectively. 

As seen, the male has the broader shoulders 
and chest ; he is also taller proportionally, 
possesses larger lungs, heart and larynx; his 
voice, in consequence, being rougher and more 
sonorous. The situation of the female makes 
her dependent upon the male. Feminine is 
used in contradistinction to masculine : the one 
having reference to vigor, strength and robust- 
ness-properties requisite for the male, and the 
absence of which renders one contemptible and 
subject to the disgraceful epithet of effeminate; 
the other being characteristic of softness, mild- 
ness, delicacy and beauty, and all other womanly 
qualities. The female is narrower in the chest. 
Her neck is of less volume ; her limbs through- 
out are more rounded and delicate, and she has 
the wider pelvis— in consequence of which her 
step is less firm and decided. 

Ihe human body is divided anatomically and 
physiologically, into three distinct divisions: 1st. 
the Abdominal 2d. the Thoracic; 3d. the 
Cephalic regions. 

First. The Abdominal region. It embraces 
the whole of the digestive and chyle making ap- 
paratus, together with the organs of generation. 


BETWEEN THE SEXES. 


129 


This region predominates in the female, giv- 
ing the capability of manufacturing an extra 
supply of nutrition — a power which as mothers 
they must possess in order to sustain themselves 
and properly maintain their offspring. Some 
writers have fallen into a manifest error, (par- 
ticularly Dr. Alexander Walker) confounding 
the function of these organs with those compris- 
ing the Thoracic region, and saying that the 
“ vital system” is larger in the female than in 
the male. They make nutrition and vitality — 
two terms wholly distinct in their signification — 
synonymous. 

Second. The Thoracic region. This im- 
portant part of the body is the centre and great 
container of those organs to whose functions are 
ascribed respiration and circulation, embracing 
particularly the heart and lungs. This region 
predominates in man, and to it must be ascribed 
his greater size, strength and impetuosity, owing 
to the fact, that the quicker the sanguineous cir- 
culation, the more active, physically and, under 
some influences, mentally, are we. Man leads a 
life of greater activity and exercise than woman. 
From this, also, the muscular system becomes 
more developed, and in man it stands out the 
most clearly ; also, in them, particular muscles 
can be more distinctly defined. 

9 


130 


DIFFERENCE 


The positions occupied by these two separate 
regions are marked in the figures. By an at- 
tentive observation of their location, you will be 
enabled to decide very correctly in what degree 
they are developed in those whom you meet 
daily — whether one overbalances the other, or 
whether there is a true and natural proportion 
between them. 

These organs have to do, mainly, with the 
body and man’s physical nature. The remain- 
ing region belongs more directly to mind and 
powers of sensation. 

Thirdly. The Cephalic region : embracing 
the head, containing the brain proper, the me- 
dulla oblongata, the roots of the cranial nerves, 
the face, and the blood-vessels supplying these 
various parts. The characteristics which dis- 
tinguish male from female, are very strongly 
marked in this region. So clear are they, that 
one who has had experience in this department, 
can point out a male from a female by the scull 
alone. 


BETWEEN THE SEXES. 


131 



At the head of this article is a well-balanced 
(phrenologically speaking) male head ; and a 
well-proportioned female one is presented at the 
close. The qualities peculiar to each can be 
explained and understood better by having ref- 
erence to these cuts, than by any other means. 

The male head is larger in size — broader from 
ear to ear — has a higher and deeper forehead — 
is also broader in the occipital region, and will 
uniformly measure more from ear to Firmness. 
The female head is narrower in the base— 
higher and fuller in the coronal region, where 


134 


MARRIAGE AND LONG LIFE. 


MARRIAGE AND LONG LIFE. 

The influence of marriage on health and hu- 
man happiness, is an interesting and important 
inquiry. As this institution is based on the nat- 
ural laws of the human constitution, there can 
be no doubt, but that its relations, when properly 
entered into, are productive not only of happi- 
ness, but of a greater increase of health, as well 
as longevity of life. A European philosopher 
has recently made very extensive observations 
on this subject, and collected a great mass of 
facts which conclusively settle these points. His 
researches, together with what was previously 
known, give the following remarkable results. 
Among unmarried men, at the ages from thirty 
to forty-five, the average number of deaths only 
are eighteen. For forty-one bachelors who at- 
tain the age of forty, there are seventy-eight 
married men who do the same. As day ad- 
vances, the difference becomes more striking. 
At sixty, there are only twenty-two^iarried men 
alive, for ninety-eight who have been married. 
At seventy, there are eleven bachelors to twenty- 
seven married men ; and at eighty, there are 


MARRIAGE AND LONG LIFE. 


135 


nine married men for three single ones. Nearly 
the same rule holds good in relation to the fe- 
male sex. Married women at the age of thirty, 
taking one with another, may expect to live 
thirty-six years longer; while for the unmarried, 
the expectation of life is only about thirty years. 
Of those who attain the age of forty-five, there 
are seventy-two married merr for fifty-two single 
ladies. These data are the result of actual facts, 
by observing the difference of longevity between 
the married and the unmarried. 


Messrs. Fowler h Strachan have for sale 
with them at all times, upon their tours through 
the country, Phrenological Works, Fowler’s 
Phrenological Guide and Chart, Phrenological 
Almanacs, Marked Phrenological Busts, &c., 
wholesale and retail. 


PHRENOLOGICAL LECTURES. 

Messrs. Fowler &l Strachan are prepared 
to deliver Courses of Lectures upon the priiici- 
ples and application of the Sciences of Phrenol- 
ogy and Physiology to Education, to Morals, to 
Regulating properly the Passions and Animal 
Propensities, and to Man’s Social Relations, in 
any place where desired. Their lectures will 
be amply illustrated by drawings and specimens. 

Terms, $10 per lecture. Where a course of 
six lectures or more are given, one will be given 
gratuitously. 

Communications making arrangements for lec- 
tures, can be directed to them, care of Dr. Na- 
than Allen, Lowell ; to the care of Saxton & 
Pierce, 133 Washington street, Boston; and to 
the Phrenological Rooms, 131 Nassau street, 
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